Who will make the big time?
It’s a fun game to play but one where speculation can be
little more than a guess at this stage given who is already in our current first
team squad, which out on loan players will return and which current under 21
players are going to claim first team berths. The above listed groups are those
which our current batch of NextGen kids must aspire to outdo in the footballing
stakes. No easy task.
Also much depends on what you mean by 'come through'. These
young men all want to be professional footballers but if they have any sense of
realism they’ll know that the odds of actually doing that as an Arsenal first
team squad player are still very much stacked against them. So if we mean ‘come
through’ to Arsenal's first team as a regular first team player then the odds
against any youth player achieving that
are considerable. Quite possibly with odds that are maybe more than a 1 in 20 chance
for even our best aspiring 'young professionals'.
When you think about it just to get an occasional game in
Arsenal's first team as a squad player means you have to be International
standard at the very least, but players such as Jack are obviously very much
more than that. But then Jack was a notable exception to the run of the mill
youth player. Did we see any such players play against CSKA? Or where they all flattering
to deceive?
It is my perception that Arsenal's youth set up has always
been about an attempt at producing well rounded kids who can cope with the
outside world and make a career at football if they are very lucky. In that
respect the Club do an incredibly good job given that there are dozens and
dozens of professional players out there who've come through Arsenal's youth
system. Very many ex-Arsenal kids make a very decent living from the game
despite being considered crap in the eyes of some Arsenal fans because they
failed to make our first team. Such kids are not crap; they simply do not have
that extra something that it takes to be an International /Premiership player
at a very top club. Getting players through to our first team squad is just one
goal of the youth setup, but it’s not quite the be all and end all of our youth
system. What's happened in recent years appears to be the overall raising of
technical standards which helps players such as the Jacks of this world to
thrive within that environment and become classier players much quicker.
Being a technical brilliant player used to be enough, being
a technically brilliant player now is only part of making it big time. These
days pretty well every youth player we have is technically first class. The
difference between them and those who make the first team are a number of
factors which I'd suggest includes dedication, ambition, dedication, hard work,
dedication, sensible life style, dedication, concentration, family support, good
friends, decent attitude to life, physicality, speed of thought, strength,
natural ability, personality, conditioning, stamina, luck with injuries, more
luck with who bars your progress to first team football and dedication. Just
being a fast or technically gifted player is no longer enough and hasn't been
for some time now - just ask tossers such as Pennant, Bothroyd, Bentley et al.
Our current under 19’s are certainly all in with a real crack
at first team football. They all probably feel they've already made the big
time. They would however all be wrong because all they've done up to now is put
themselves on the starting grid and how they react to the challenge of the next
3/4 years will determine if they sink, swim or survive in the big time.
So who do you think has what it takes: Yennaris, Gnarby, Hajrovic,
Angha? Well let’s face it your guess is as good as mine because I only know how
good I rate them as exciting technical players but I’ve no idea about all the other
stuff which will determine how far they go in the beautiful game, either with
Arsenal or any other Club.
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