Arsene Wenger says clubs need to stop stockpiling of young players
Wednesday 28 December 2016 20:29, UK
Arsene Wenger believes too many young players miss out on the experience of first-team football because leading clubs stockpile players to safeguard their expensive investments.
To reverse this worrying trend for the betterment of both game and players themselves, the Arsenal boss suggests the loan system could be changed.
Wenger thinks that another radical solution would be for top clubs to part-own teams in the lower leagues.
The Frenchman told Arsenal's official magazine: "It is one of the big problems in the modern game.
"You've invested a lot of money into players because we're paying more and more money, and then at the age of 20 you don't usually get much money for any of the players, so the reflex is to stockpile the players. That's not right.
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"When you look at the number of loans that happen here and there, the whole system has to be thought about again because we have two kinds of solution in there.
"The first is to continue developing players, the second step is just to make sure your investment is safe - and that's not the right way to think about it but it's the natural reflex for the clubs.
"Maybe you could create a possibility for some clubs to own part of a League One club as a feeder club. After that, a limitation on the number of players on your books could work.
Maybe you could create a possibility for some clubs to own part of a League One club as a feeder club.
"The way a youth team is organised now is that all the best young players go to the richest clubs, which is where they have fewer chances to develop, so you have to make sure the system shares out the best young players equally.
"It's difficult because the development of the players depends on the concentration of the good players. The more good players you have together, the more chance they have of becoming even better players."
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