Arsene Wenger has publicly asked his English players to take control of Arsenal’s future, short and long term. But the longstanding coach has never managed to recruit English players capable of dominating the Premier League.
He had that gift in spades when it came to players from the continent, Africa and elsewhere, and Wenger can take a lot of the credit for the Premier League becoming so much more cosmopolitan than it was when he arrived on the scene.
Wenger inherited English players such Tony Adams and Martin Keown. I remember being at Highbury while Arsenal turned in a truly anaemic performance against Everton and the home supporters around me spent the entire second half lambasting Keown for his inept hacking of the ball into Row Z.
But those players flourished under his tutelage, while maintaining the essence of the typical English player. The Englishmen who have come since seem to fall into some category of performing well in bursts and then remaining largely invisible for large parts of the season.
Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jack Wilshere and company have not given the type of service that Wenger routinely got out of Emmanuel Petit, Nwankwo Kanu, Robert Pires and Thierry Henry. Wenger described Aaron Ramsey as having the ability to be a Frank Lampard type of player. He and all Arsenal fans must wish that was true.
Liverpool went backwards when they recruited the ‘Spice Boy’ generation instead of the next Jimmy Case, Terry McDermott and Steve McMahon. Maybe Wenger’s greatest weakness is his inability to identify what makes a great English player.
marty beauchamp
Roar Pro
You're right Vas, it seems (and is) an age ago Alex Ferguson told Martin Tyler he had 'one who's better than them all' and he was talking about Beckham not Ronaldo or cantona. United still cling to that team with scholes, the Neville brother s and so on and don't seem to have managed to develop anything since. I only really meant this in terms of Wenger s ability to ignite young talent that wasn't English and how glaringly obvious it is that he hasn't had the same success with young Englishmen. Maybe the perfect team is a Wenger with and Eddie Howe offsider?
Vas Venkatramani
Roar Guru
In fairness Marty, is there any manager currently that has what can amount to be an English leader? Dele Alli looks promising, and Jordan Henderson is a promising leader, albeit a slightly underwhelming player. Ross Barkley is feted at Everton, but his form is too inconsistent to take on that mantle. The Premier League's biggest victim is the English National Team, where the short-term ambitions of managers means that bringing up local players is not a priority compared to dipping into the transfer market.
marty beauchamp
Roar Pro
I think Wenger is a genius, to have done what he has , as you say not at one of the super rich teams, is amazing. The only point I was making was that everyone has a weak point or two and perhaps not fully understanding the English psyche was one of his. Maybe that is what was missing in his back room staff, he needed someone who could read all the young English talent they saw in the way Wenger obviously understood French talent.
saul
Guest
Young players sign lucrative contracts now from the age of 14 onwards, they stay in club accommodation which resembles a five star hotel. The hunger is not there that previous generations had and that is not exclusive to just English players, plenty of foreign players sign a contract have one good season and that's it. There isn't enough English players getting first team football now anyway, there has been calls for the FA to introduce limits on the number of foreign players in each squad but the premier league has become an organisation that answers to itself at the expense of England Producing top quality national players. To be fair to Arsenal Thierry Henry was an outstanding player whose shoes any club would find hard to replace and the club has lacked the funds to buy players Chelsea, Man Utd , Man City have. Wenger has had them playing good football over the years and they have come close to winning a few times so it's harsh for people to call him a hopeless manager.