The Failure of Wenger’s Home Grown Gamble

Gone are the days where Arsenal were ridiculed for the amount of French players they had in their first team. In a time where constant national team underachievement places greater emphasis on home grown talent to try and fix the problem, it would be much harder for a team to get away with such a thing in today’s Premier League. Changes were made to Premier League squad rules specifically to incorporate a minimum number of home grown players for that exact reason.

Almost 4 years ago, Arsene Wenger took a gamble by signing a group of British players to long term contracts – players that could provide the nucleus of a team that could mount a serious title challenge. It’s a strategy that’s served their North London rivals extremely well this season, as the likes of Harry Kane, Deli Alli, Eric Dier and Danny Rose have been instrumental in Tottenham’s push towards first place. However Carl Jenkinson, Kieran Gibbs, Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain haven’t quite had the same effect at the Emirates.

At the time, Wenger said the reason for signing the players on was to “build a team around a strong basis of young players, in order to get them to develop their talent at the club”. In reality, the quintet have all struggled to nail down a starting XI place even when fit – save for Aaron Ramsey’s impressive goal scoring season. Jenkinson was loaned to West Ham in consecutive seasons after falling down the pecking order at right back behind new signing Mathieu Debuchy and the emerging Hector Bellerin. Gibbs hasn’t been able to unseat Nacho Monreal on the opposite flank, and has had to settle for being used as an emergency winger as well as fading out of the England picture.

I can’t remember a time where Jack Wilshere wasn’t injured. Whenever he builds up any modicum of momentum he’s back on the side lines for a lengthy period of time. He’s yet to play a single minute of Premier League football this season. Since signing his contract he’s made fewer and fewer

An all too familiar sight

appearances each season, and always seems to be 6-8 weeks away from being 2-3 weeks away from full fitness. Aaron Ramsey is arguably the biggest success story of the five players due to his aforementioned goal scoring exploits two seasons ago. Niggling injuries, a dip in form, and a stint playing on the right have made it hard for him to reach such heights again. Finally Oxlade-Chamberlain has threatened to be a key player for both club and country, but it just hasn’t quite happened for him yet. Injuries (do you see the recurring theme with Arsenal players yet?) and poor form have hindered him to the point where his place in the England squad for Euro 2016 is in severe jeopardy. If the papers are to be believed the Arsenal are willing to listen to offers for the midfielder come the summer.

Would any of these players make it into the starting XI if Arsenal had a fully fit squad? Unlikely. A summer clear out at Arsenal would surely see at least three of these players being moved on. Wenger took a gamble that hasn’t quite paid off, and I doubt Arsenal fans have the patience for something like this to be repeated any time soon. They’ve already fallen behind the likes of Leicester and bitter rivals Tottenham this season, and you would think that the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool and the Manchester clubs will come back stronger next season. Another long term investment in home grown youth may not be what Arsenal need to stop them falling behind their rivals.