Cheers, Yuv! I've changed the title of the thread to encompass any and all the changes the club are making at backroom and boardroom level.
Clrnc wrote:
Jeorgebird's article on Arseblog is a good summary. Basically our youth teams haven't won a single trophy for 7 years now and everytime I watch them the defence is horrendous. I don't agree that our youth teams is up there with the best, at least in terms of performances. We have had quite a few embarrassing defeats to shit clubs both in England and Europe.
I have confidence in Per turning things around though.
It depends what trophies you're talking about. Our U16s and below win trophies galore, all over Europe and the world. For the U18s and above you're talking about three trophies: U18 Premier League, U19 Uefa Youth League and the FA Youth Cup. The U23s don't count and the League they play in is a waste of everybody's time.
The latter two competitions are cup competitions and we generally perform respectably in them. A couple of semi-final appearances over the past few seasons in each. We disappointed in both competitions last season but the margins were fine and it's in my opinion not particularly indicative of anything worrying.
We have had some bad years in the U18 Premier League. The 2015/16 season was disastrous, but, in my humble opinion, it was the result of years of under investment by the club and mismanagement by Liam Brady. A case of resting on our laurels a little. In all competitions we were fielding very young and inexperienced teams compared to our opponents and had a high turnover of coaches and a general instability surrounding our academy.
It took Jonker until this season to steady the ship and put the structures in place that allowed the talent that we were producing to compete properly. We have fielded lots of players at U18 level this season that were regularly competing at U23 level last season and, for me, we have as much talent at that level as Chelsea and City - the current standard bearers. We are a little different o those two teams in the sense that they hire coaches with one thing in mind: winning. We are slightly less concerned with winning and more geared towards development. That shows when we face these sides: we usually match up very well in terms of technical ability and overall talent but they will invariably be drilled better than we are.
We have also now got a very, very good coach working with the U18s in Kwame Ampadu. From what I know Jonker got in a couple of good coaches and backroom guys to work at U15/U16/U18 level including trying to bring in a number of ex-players: Theirry Henry, Freddy Ljungberg, Ryan Garry etc. Steve Gatting is still a bit of a disaster for the U23s - as mentioned, the U23 league is a joke competition anyway - and he also takes charge in the Uefa Youth League - which is unfortunate because that's a very good competition that we could and should have done better in. Gatting is a former Arsenal player and has been here a long time, he carries enough clout that even Jonker couldn't get rid of him. But he's getting old and will be replaced soon enough.
With that said, we finished runner-up to Chelsea in the U18 Premier League - a national competition. It came down to the last game of the season at Cobham, Chelsea's training ground, and we were narrowly beaten on the day. A massive step up from the troubles of the season before.
In my opinion, the work we do at Hale End - 6 years of age through to 17 when players sign their first professional contracts - until recent seasons, has always been streets ahead of everyone else. Where we have consistently fallen short in the past 4 or 5 years is in our recruitment, that's where both the club and Brady let it slip.
Chelsea and City's approach initially was to throw ungodly sums at any talented kid they could convince to join them. So some other club did all the hard work they then bought them at 17, played them in their reserves for a bit before endlessly loaning them out and almost always selling them on, usually for profit. We were slow to react to that change in the landscape and simply weren't matching them with our own investment. There was a definite drop in the level of talent we scouted and bought into the club at 16 or 17 compared to years gone by. Which is why we've struggled to match them at the older age groups in recent times, where their best players will generally be those that have been purchased rather than developed. The younger age groups it's who has the best development methods - we did and still do - and at U18 level and up its about who has the best scouts and the deepest pockets - until recently we were lagging badly behind.
Over time Chelsea and City realised that the more sustainable and impactful way to invest was in their own academy infrastructure (that's not to say they stopped throwing those ludicrous sums at any talent who's head they could turn!). They now have outstanding facilities and coaches after years of massive investment. In terms of facilities, until the recent redevelopment of Hale End, at a cost of £10m, City and Chelsea had probably surpassed us in that respect and, as Tony Adams said recently, they pay their coaches three times as much as we do - hopefully the drive to improve off the pitch in all areas sees us match them financially from now on. It doesn't matter how well run Hale End is, If enough time goes by with other clubs spending more on recruiting the best talent - that's players, coaches, analytics etc. - they will move ahead.
At the end of it all though we are producing fantastic talent to match anyone in this country. Hale End is top class, no question about it, let no one tell you otherwise. The generation coming through right now: Ben Sheaf, Maitlaind-Niles, Marcus McGuane, Joe Willock, Chris Willock (may have signed for Benfica but his tehncial ability is a credit to the work of the academy), Josh Dasilva, Reiss Nelson, Stephy Mavididi, Eddie Nketiah...all played, and in a lot of cases starred, for their respective national sides, all from Hale End. And in the next wave behind them there's Mark McGuinness, Robbie Burton, Xavier Amaechi, Emile Smith-Rowe, Trae Coyle, Tyreece John-Jules...again all play for their countries and these are just the ones I happen to know a bit about.
Only a small fraction will have enough about them to make the first team at Arsenal, but what matters is that the work being done is consistently excellent.
Btw - I don't listen too much to what Jeorge Bird says. I read most of what he writes and it's rarely anything insightful or original. He mainly just regurgitates easily available information and in my opinion he's frequently wrong or misinformed. If I had more time I'd start a blog covering it myself because I think the coverage is terrible - which is Arsenal's fault for failing to provide coverage of our games. It's ridiculous really and I feel if they gave fans a way of accessing live games then there would be real interest there from a sizeable portion of the fan base.
