Well, let’s forget about last night (if we can) and move on. He should have started Adebayor from the beginning though.
Anyway, today I am going to prove how difficult it is for young players to make it at Arsenal.
Below I have listed all the first-year scholars from 2001-2005 and I’m sure you will be suprised at how many are still at the club. Players in red are still contracted to the club.
2001-
Brett Freeman
Justin Hoyte
Alfie Kamara
Ashley Probets
Stephen Bradley
Jordan Fowler
Sam Kanu
Sebastian Larsson
Wayne O’Sullivan
Adam Birchall
Michael Gordon
Dean Shiels
2002-
Michael Jordan
Sam Oji
Hassan Sulaiman
Dorian Small
Marcus Artry
Patrick Cregg
Inji Hosted
Neil Kilkenny
Stephen O’Donnell
Dean McDonald
2003-
Mark Howard
Chris Wright
Issa Abdul Kadir
Shaun Clohessy
Kerrea Gilbert
Matthew Hislop
Billy Nott
Ryan Smith
Daniel Spaul
Luke Webb
Aaron Samuel
2004-
Nicklas Bendtner
Matthew Connolly
Ben Gill
Sean Kelly
Arturo Lupoli
Fabrice Muamba
Mitchell Murphy
Dominic Shimmin
Anthony Stokes
2005-
Jay Simpson
Marc Elston
Giorgios Efrem
Lee Butcher
Shane Tracy
As you can see there are many unfamiliar names on that list and only Justin Hoyte, Kerrea Gilbert, Nicklas Bendtner and Jay Simpson are still at Arsenal, and Bendtner is, in my opinion, the only one who has a chance to be a first-team regular. However, if you look at our current Academy first-year scholars, then it is probably our best ever with the likes of Lansbury, Murphy and Sunu, but it remains to be seen whether they will make it or not.
