In my blog earlier this week about Amario Cozier-Duberry, the usual comments about “Arteta does not develop youth” were bought up again.
To start with, those making these comments are clearly doing so because they have a dislike of Arteta, and never wanted him as manager. They can no longer criticise his on pitch performances, nor our dealings in the transfer market, so instead they focus on him not developing youth.
They are the same sort of fans that if Arteta did stick Cozier-Duberry, Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly on at 3-0 and we ended up winning 3-2, would moan that the manager weakened the team by sticking on youth.
Another point to make is these fans have probably never watched any of these youngsters play.
Premier League 2 games are not on TV, and only occassionaly are they streamed online (usually by the opposing club). The only chance they would get to have seen them play properly is if they went to Borehamwood. And lets be honest, these fellas moaning do not even go to senior games, let alone kids games.
They have built their opinion on what they have seen on blogs, on social media and the odd highlight. Mikel Arteta and his team sees these guys in training day in day out. They are much better positioned to establish whether a kid is ready or not in comparison to someone who watches senior games on a dodgy laptop stream thousands of miles away.
It is also forgotten by many that having these kids on the bench means that they do not get game time in the PL2 or the UEFA Youth League.
I have seen plenty saying “these guys should have been given a run in the last 10 minutes of the Lens game” or “they should have been on the bench for the PSV dead rubber”.
If you did not know (and these guys probably do not), the UEFA Youth League is contested by the youth teams of the clubs competing in the UEFA Champions League group stage.
On December, 4 hours before the senior team kicked off against PSV, Lewis-Skelly, Cozier-Duberry et al were playing against the Dutch outfits youth team (we won 3-1). And it was the same when the seniors played Lens. The youngsters were playing the French teams youngsters.
One of the benefits of “taking youngsters to a Champions League game” was so that they could get used to the travelling abroad and being in and around the squad. That now happens with the UEFA Youth League as our youngsters would have travelled to Holland with the senior team, trained with them, and so on.
It is surely better for their development to play a competitive 90 minutes against some of the best young footballers in Europe rather than play 10 senior minutes when the team is 6-0 up, and the game is being played at half pace.
I think there is also an over estimation just how many top players other sides in the “Big 6” bring through their academy. How many opportunities are given by their manager.
In all his time at Manchester City, Phil Foden is the only academy product to go on to become a week in week out regular for his club and England. Rico Lewis is a talent, but he has not yet solidified his break through.
Jurgen Klopp has given a lot of debuts and “5 minutes” to youngsters, but Trent Alexander-Arnold remains the only academy product to become a regular for Liverpool under his management.
None of Liverpool’s 2018/19 FA Youth Cup winning teams are at the club this season (by my math, two are out on loan).
This is not to abuse Klopp or Guardiola, or to claim that they do not care about youth. It is to highlight just how hard the step up is from talented youngster to senior regular, especially if that senior team is a top club challenging for honours.
To break through as regular for the Manchester City’s, Liverpool’s and Arsenal’s of this world, you not only have to be one of the best youth footballers in the world, but also one of the best footballers in the world. The likes of Saka, Foden and Trent are special talents that would have got their opportunity regardless of who they played for.
And this argument about “givign youth a chance” is not a new thing.
Arsene Wenger was heavily criticised over the years for not bringing through (English) academy lads. For over a decade, Ashley Cole was the only Arsenal Academy graduate who went on to be a regular for Wenger’s first team.
After his Class of 92, Sir Alex Ferguson’s next best youth academy products were Wes Brown, Danny Welbeck, John O’Shea and Jonny Evans. Not exactly superstars! And they have not really bought anyone else through since Marcus Rashford (9 years since his debut).
And during his first spell at Chelsea, Jose Mourinho did not develop a single Chelsea youngster who went on to become a first team regular.
Chelsea have been dominating the FA Youth Cup since 2010. In that time, Reece James, Mason Mount and Connor Gallagher are the only ones to go on to play regularly for Chelsea (plenty of others have built a career elsewhere).
And I always wonder whether the likes of James and Mount would have broken through if it were not for the transfer ban.
Since Harry Kane, Tottenham have not bought through a single home grown player that has gone on to be a regular for themselves or England (their next best players being Harry Winks and Oliver Skipp).
All these clubs have given opportunities to plenty of young players, and fans have got excited over countless youngsters who have been labelled “the next big thing”. But you can count the youngsters that have left these clubs over the last decade and gone on to huge success elsewhere (basically Jadon Sancho).
What this highlights is that top teams rarely develop youngsters They can not afford to give them the game time that they need. It is similar when recruiting from abroad – Brighton are praised for finding these unknown players, but they can afford to give them game time and let them make mistakes that cost points. Title challenging teams can not play 6 or 7 unknowns in the hope it works.
When top clubs do have a kid break through, these players tend to become amongst the best in the world in their position. Foden, Kane, Rashford, Trent, Saka are global superstars!
My final point on this is take a look at the England national team. You would expect most of the starting XI to have come through a Big 6 academy. But the top clubs are simply do not have a conveyor belt of young talent breaking through:
Pickford – Sunderland
Walker – Sheffield United
Stones – Barnsley
Maguire – Sheffield United
Shaw – Southampton
Rice – West Ham
Bellingham – Birmingham
Foden – Man City
Saka – Arsenal
Kane – Tottenham
Rashford – Manchester United
Just 4 of the 11 I would play for England came from a top 6 academy.
When it comes to the last squad, it does look a little better with 11 of the 21 selected by Gareth Southgate coming through a top 6 academy. But 4 of those (Johnstone, Guehi, Tomori, Palmer) had to move away from their boyhood team to get first team football.
All this highlights that it is not just Arsenal who see very few players go through the academy and go on to be a superstar for club and country.
In my footballing lifetime (first game 1995), there are just 3 players who have come through our academy and gone on to have a huge impact on the club – Ashley Cole, Jack Wilshere and Bukayo Saka.
Many of the other youngsters who some of you might name (Cesc, Clichy, Martinelli, etc) were not true graduates. They were signed from other academies in their mid-teens.
I love it when a local kid breaks through and makes an impact. But I also understand that not every kid makes it, and you are doing well if you create 1 global superstar a decade.
Ultimately, if you are good enough you will get your chance. And you prove that you are good enough by working hard and showing your worth at London Colney, by going out on loan and impressing. Just being at the club for 7 or 8 years does not mean you “deserve a chance”.
Enjoy your Friday.
Keenos
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 
Absolutely spot on, every word of it.
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