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The integration of talented academy players at a club like Arsenal has always been a little bit chicken and egg. Do clubs and coaches create space for young players or do young players create the path themselves? The proper answer is probably that it is a little bit of both (*winks knowingly at Football Cliches listeners*).
How academy players are integrated has always been a little random and open to circumstance. A couple of decades ago now, Arsene Wenger decided to use the League Cup as a kind of bridge between U21 football and the Premier League. In recent years, the Europa League group stage provided Arsenal with another diet version of the elite level to blood young players. Let’s call it ‘I can’t believe it’s not elite competition.’
Happily, the Europa League group stage is no longer on Arsenal’s radar but it does create a small issue in smoothing the path of players like Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis Skelly to the first team. We often misremember that even the club’s most successful academy products (or players brought in so young they might as well have been) almost always have that bridging experience before becoming first team regulars.
Bukayo Saka’s first two senior Arsenal goals occurred in the Europa League group stage in the winter of 2019, his third came in an FA Cup tie at Bournemouth. It is easy to forget that Saka was an unused sub in the 2020 FA Cup Final against Chelsea. His is one of the most meteoric rises of any Arsenal academy player in the club’s history and he still experienced that ‘bridge’ season where he mainly played cup matches until an injury crisis saw him blooded in the first team at left-back.
Likewise, Jack Wilshere’s ascension was not quite as immediate as the collective memory recalls. Wilshere rose to prominence during the summer 2008 Emirates Cup followed by an outstanding display at home to Sheffield United in the League Cup in September 2008 (which Arsenal won 6-0). The following weekend he made…
Source link : https://arseblog.com/2024/09/sliding-doors/
Author : Tim Stillman
Publish date : 2024-09-18 12:00:08
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