Frank Arnesen, who was poached from Spurs in 2005 to help spearhead Chelsea’s drive to create a world-leading youth academy, today defended his ‘record’ at the club. One of the few people out there to be promoted despite achieving nothing – in a recession no less – Chelsea’s new Sporting Director was today quoted in the Berlingske Tidende, saying:
"It is clearly laid out in our long term planning for 2004 to 2014 - after which we aim to be self-financed - that from 2010 and onwards our top priority is to introduce one player [per year] into the Premiership squad. But that is from 2010. It was never the objective that I should be delivering two talents for the first team from 2007 on a yearly basis. I don't know how that misunderstanding has surfaced. You don't create talents at the assembly line. Patience is a virtue. In a top club like Chelsea you do not waltz into the team at the age of 18-19 years.”
An interesting statement, if only because Arnesen obviously felt there was a need to defend his record. On the face of it though, he hasn’t really much of a record to defend, having singularly failed to bring through even one young player to make consistent first team performances in the four years he’s been at the club. Yes, I’m sure patience is a virtue – but in my view Abramovich and Chelsea fans have the right to expect more from an academy that has had money chucked at it (to fund both facilities and personnel) left, right and centre.
And if Chelsea’s board are happy to give Arnesen five years to produce just one young player of sufficient ability to play in the Premier League, they’re not setting their expectations high enough. Look at the youth set-up at rival clubs – for example Arsenal and even West Ham – and you would expect Chelsea’s expensive academy to be working more like an assembly line. Arnesen is suggesting that it’s too much to expect that any of the 16,17 and 18 year old players bought when he arrived in 2005 (or already at the club) should now be making the first team. Frank – that would make them either 20, 21 or 22 now. How many players at that age – or younger - have made their debuts with our main rivals, Man Utd, Arsenal or Liverpool? And how many of them have made successful debuts? There has been plenty of time to either grow or identify young talent.
And on another one of his points, Arnesen is just plain wrong. 18-19 year olds are ‘waltzing into’ other top clubs – and also clubs that have been more successful than Chelsea over the past four years. I’m not talking about Arsenal, who are a unique example and have achieved little success. But how old was Evans when he debuted for United last year? How old were Messi or Bojan when they started playing for Barcelona? Pato at AC Milan, Balotelli at Inter or Lucas and Insua at Liverpool? While United were blooding Evans and Macheda last year, Chelsea’s Mancienne, Sinclair and Di Santo were either on loan, on the bench or in the reserves. Mancienne, perhaps Chelsea’s most promising young player, made four appearances last season. Evans made 34 for Utd. Both sides had significant injury problems in defence.
This summer, long-term hopes Sahar, Nouble and Tejera have left the club permanently while Taiwo and Stoch have gone out on loan. Of course it’s ok for players to not make it and for others to go out on loan for more experience. Clearly Mourinho didn’t think it was too much to ask that one or two might break through, but he was one of the people suffering from the ‘misunderstanding’ Arnesen cites in his quote. Just crossed wires, and certainly not ol’ Arnesen’s fault.
But let’s make one thing clear: this doesn’t have to be about finding the next Messi. The first priority of a good youth system for a top class side, in my view, should be to unearth an alternative stream of talent to supplement signing more established players. Chelsea are fast approaching a situation where a large number of the squad will need replacing inside the next 3-4 years – as I mentioned in this morning’s post on Chelsea potentially buying Pirlo, the club already has 11 players over 30 in the first team squad. The lack of good, if not excellent, young players coming through the ranks puts real pressure on the club to bankroll expensive new signings, and damages its ability to break even, if that is the aim. On the playing side, it also boxes the management into a tricky corner with regards to coming up with a strategy to replace those ageing players – they can’t afford to release them gradually without viable replacements getting game time.
Arnesen’s role sits right at the heart of the future of the club. Despite what he says, he hasn’t delivered – and if he continues in that vein his failure will pose significant problems both on and off the pitch.
good post. its hard to disagree, but maybe arnesen should have a bit more time?
mancienne's a good player, sinclair might get there at some point soon...
Posted by: chelsfan | 03 August 2009 at 19:22
Shame that Di Santo's off on loan too. Hopefully he'll get a chance to play at Blackburn and we'll see what he's really made of. Arnesen must be doing something right - all our other management personnel seem to get removed asap post a minor blip, yet he seems to be sailing on with impunity. I'd be fascinated to hear what they like about what he's doing. I don't think the output is good enough.
Posted by: CFC_KD | 04 August 2009 at 11:32
Who would you rather have sit out than the youngster? Would you want Didier or Anelka on the bench instead of Di Santo? You want to tell JT to take a seat for Mancienne? Maybe tell Lampard to warm the bench so Sinclair can get some PT? You would still whine. We have a world class side, so you needn't worry about that. We have a fine youth academy, don't lose any sleep on that topic, though we don't crank them out with the apparent effect of other teams. If we had a superstar come through, would that make you contented? I would rate our youngsters as highly as any other squads - it is nothing but a good thing to loan them out for different player, coach, and system experience while there is classier players and they would rot on the bench. The Cup of Nations is coming up, so for those with a 6 month loan, they will be back and get their chance. And I say Di Santo will be a beast, before the season is over. He is tall, fast, getting stronger, and a favorite of JT and the team.
Posted by: gerald | 20 August 2009 at 14:15
Hi Gerald, thanks very much for your comment.
I get what you're saying but I think you might have got me a bit wrong on this one. I'm certainly not advocating an Arsenal-style youth love-in. I don't want to see 11 of our youth players playing week in week out - I'm just calling for them to get more of an opportunity. I want 1-2 of our more promising products get regular appearances from the bench where possible.
Like you, I also agree that them going out on loan is a good thing - especially now 3 of them are with PL clubs - but my argument merely was that I don't think Arnesen has delivered enough quickly enough.
Finally - as I said in the post, my argument isn't about the lack of creating a 'superstar'. It's about creating a depth of talent in an alternative way to buying it off the shelf. There's no harm in the club having different strategies to achieve success, and I just think Arnesen could have done a bit better.
Fingers crossed for Mancienne, Sinclair and Di Santo getting appearances next season!
Posted by: Russell Saunders | 20 August 2009 at 14:33