There is a piece of Arsenal news this morning and it’s about Freddie Ljungberg. Amy Lawrence is one of my favorite Arsenal writers and she has piece up about Freddie Ljungberg and his new role at the club. The piece includes direct quotes from Sanllehi which give the club’s fans a sense of the direction.
Apparently, the problem is that many players get lost between the ages of 18 and 23. This isn’t an exclusively Arsenal problem but for many Premier League clubs, it’s hard to integrate young players into the first team because the competition is often so stiff. As a result, some players are let go, some are sent out for loans, and some are tried but don’t really make it.
You can think of a number of examples of this happening over the last few years at many clubs in Europe and I don’t need to remind you of the ones that got away at Arsenal.
Freddie’s job, it seems, will be to make sure that they don’t get away!
This is a LOT different than what I thought he was doing at Arsenal. My first impression was that he was taking over as assistant manager. But Amy Lawrence makes it clear that Ljungberg is in charge of this new program called player transitions. The program is charged by Sanllehi “to make careful choices around who stays with the Under-23s, who trains [and plays] with the first team and who goes on loan. The transition team will be responsible for managing development plans for each and every player to best optimise their potential.”
I appreciate the clarifications from the club and Amy Lawrence.
Source:
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/jun/21/arsenal-freddie-ljungberg
“It does feel like a good time for Arsenal to re-engage in Project Youth as the vibrations around the club feel stifled by a culture of high-earning players who can’t be counted on to deliver. ”
Simple truth.
Yeah, as always Amy is spot on. I think she must have some exclusive access, but doesn’t shy away from making it quite obvious who she thinks stinks.
This could be what many have been hoping for, and an opportunity for the fans to see players that they can actually relate to instead of resources draining non performing sick note waving tossers.
I think this is a much better idea than just making him assistant manager. Freddie is an unknown quantity at the senior level. He’s done well with the youth by all accounts. This plays to those strengths, and aims to address a larger strategic issue. I’m all for it.
Positive news about the direction for a change. I remain unconvinced that Emery is the manager to bring young players along a la Pocchetino or Klopp or Guardiola even.
The whole market is shifting – I’m laughing at all these big names who are stuck where they are because the transfer fee/salary are exorbitant; Pogba, Ozil, Lukaku, Sanchez, Bale, Neymar. The focus is moving to young players on decent salaries that give clubs some flexibility.
Huh. Interesting that you thought it was something else Tim. This is exactly what I thought it was. I prefer it to just making him assistant.
The club’s messaging was that it was a separate team which would coordinate with Emery and HIS coaching team. It draws a distinction between the Arsenal old boys and Emery the outsider. The hope being to merge the two better I’m sure, but a basic acceptance that Emery cannot be counted on to promote the youth on his own.
Hopefully Freddie and Unai can form a good working relationship. Personally, I think this was Mertesacker’s initiative. He seems to be gaining influence at the club.
I don’t see it as an issue that we have ‘high-earning players’. Even Ajax had Overmars breaking their wage structure to bring in an experienced pro in Blind, and retain some young talent like (IIRC) Ziyech. The key is finding the balance, which is Emery’s job.
I hope he adopts a clear philosophy of how we want to play. Freddie will advise on which young players can fit in, work with the rest accordingly, and the market can be used to bring in a player or two where there’s a gap.
At least there’s a plan, a vision, which is what I’d been asking for. I can look toward next season with some hope, even if my expectation in terms of league position is now much lower.
To be fair to me, I didn’t look into it much before I jumped to a conclusion!
I spend way too much time thinking about this s%&#
What is the point of having an academy if “many players get lost between the ages of 18 and 23.” If accurate, this is brilliant and necessary. And when is Amy Lawrence not accurate?
Strong focus and renewed attention to player development can help mitigate some of the negative aspects of KSE ownership. But it’s a much longer road than spending money to buy established big names. Will club weather the inevitable decline in worldwide popularity and revenues?
Yep.
“…it’s hard to integrate young players into the first team because the competition is often so stiff.”
So THAT’s why we keep the likes of Elneny/Mkhitaryan/Mustafi/(insert favourite whipping boy here). It’s so we can integrate young players into the first team without having to make difficult decisions or bruise any egos. Brilliant!
Interest post Tim. I would actually be interested to know which players you believe that got away from Arsenal and we wish we could have them back. I would argue the only 2 who could potentially be difference making players are Gnabry and Wojo. I can’t think of any other player who got away that I really wish we could have a mulligan. That is only 2 out of literally hundreds of players who have come and gone thru our u21 system which is actually a very good record.
History shows us that is its hard to integrate u21’s into the first team because it costs you points while you spend years and years trying to develop them but the vast majority never live up to expectations. I hope Freddie is really good but trying to pick out the 1 Gnabry from the hundreds of players who go thru the system is almost impossible which is why in this decade most of the worlds big teams have basically given up on building their teams thru their academies.
Trying to build your own impact players from a group of U20’s is a very low percentage play. Much better to let other “smaller” teams do the heavy lifting and then do what Bayern did with Gnabry or Liverpool did with Andrew Robertson and pick up 21 and 22 year old players who are still somewhat under the radar.