Wenger to go English in future

Gunners academy is full of local talent

By Chris Burton   Last updated: 15th January 2008

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Wenger: Bright future

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Arsene Wenger has admitted that he may be able to field an all-English side in the future.

The Arsenal manager has received criticism in the past for his policy of recruiting young talent from abroad as opposed to working with homegrown youngsters, but he has now revealed that the club have plenty of English stars coming through.

Wenger has fielded a side made up entirely of foreign players on a number of occasions down the years and at present the only Englishman with a realistic chance of making the first team on a regular basis is Theo Walcott.

Wenger claims that in an ideal world that situation would be reversed, but feels that the club have been priced out of the market in the past as Manchester United and Chelsea snapped up the best young players this country has to offer for over inflated transfer fees.

With Arsenal's academy now full of English talent though, Wenger feels that the time will come when the club can challenge for the Premier League title without the reliance on foreign imports.

Prefer English

"Why not? We feel we have the best players at U16s and U14s," he told Arsenal TV.

"Maybe 80 per cent of the academy are English and 20 per cent are foreign.

"I don't feel obliged to field English players. I would prefer to field English players.

"First you want the club to be successful. At the moment we thought it was not possible for different reasons.

"Financially, top English players were very expensive, Manchester United and Chelsea bought them.

"We felt other people were not good enough and so we went a different route."