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Wenger’s Arsenal never produce any home grown talent do they?

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We have all had to put up with the jibes in recent years about Arsenal never producing British or English talent and it has certainly been the case on many occasion that since 2006 we have had no home grown players in the UK, not the UEFA sense, in our team. This undoubtedly explains why Theo, even when underperforming, has been our terrace darling.

In addition, we have had to accept and, in some cases, perhaps agree that the lack of home grown backbone has seen us wilt in the latter part of the season, or struggle in matches that became physical battles. There is of course an element of truth that we have missed the English back five that Arsene Wenger inherited, but we should balance that with the fact that the ‘Invincibles’ back five featured Lauren, Kolo Toure and Jens Lehmann, as well as Sol Campbell and Ashley Cole.

Those of us who have followed our youth and reserves to some degree or another will point to the 2000 and 2001 FA Youth Cup winning squads to demonstrate that whilst we may not have produced talent that ultimately broke through at Arsenal but we certainly contributed our fair share of top flight players. We could point to Steve Sidwell, Jerome Thomas, Jermaine Pennant and Jay Bothroyd all plying their trade in the Premier League, and of course Bothroyd is one of our newest English caps. From these squads also came Justin Hoyte, now at Middlesborough, and Graham Stack in goal for Hibernian.

However, to bring us up to date and make what I hope is a valid and very encouraging point, I want to look at our most recent FA Youth Cup winning team of 2008/09, as this should be the next batch of hopefuls. To emphasise the positivity for this squad however, I am going to look also at the team they defeated in 2009, which was the mighty Liverpool FC.

There were 12 players who started for Arsenal across the two legs and only four of these are not still at the club. Gilles Sunu is playing top flight football in France, Luke Ayling is a regular in Yeovil’s midfield and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas we sold to Ipswich this summer past. Only Tom Cruise has been released and is currently without a club. So what of the remaining 8? Who are they and do we hold out hope for them making regulars in our first-team?

James Shea, the young goalkeeper is still at the club, but on loan at Dagenham and Redbridge and is predicted a bright future. From the defence we have Kyle Bartley, on loan at Rangers and rewarded with a long-term contract and Craig Eastmond, who played at right-back, currently fit again and playing for the reserves.

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