Per Mertesacker became our academy manager upon retiring in 2018. Since then no fewer than 22 Arsenal Academy products have gone on to make first-team debuts for us, and the supply chain shows no signs of slowing down.
The last graduate to make his bow was Marli Salmon, who came on in our Champions League win over Brugge two weeks ago, at the age of just 16 and three months. In fact the defender became the fourth-youngest player in the club’s history – and the top three are also Hale End graduates still with the club: Ethan Nwaneri, Max Dowman and Jack Porter.
So ahead of our clash with Crystal Palace in the Carabao Cup – a competition that has witnessed Academy players making their Arsenal debuts in each of the past five seasons – we caught up with the German World Cup winner to assess the state of play in the club’s youth system.
You have been in the job for more than seven years now, still enjoying it?
Yeah of course – it’s a long time, however you look at it! It’s funny because when I started, I had to switch my mindset from thinking very short term as a player, and just wanting to win the next game, to thinking more mid and long term.
I changed to ’we need to develop people here and that takes time’. I had to learn a lot as well. I went from not knowing what was going on in the academy world to now, where I am more experienced, and it’s nice that I’ve been through each process a few times before.
It’s my first job away from playing, and at first it was very different. I was trusted by senior people at the club, Arsène Wenger and Ivan Gazidis, who saw something in me. It was totally different for me, to look after staff and players and put them in the best possible position for them to grow and develop.
I wasn’t just looking after myself anymore. So that was – and still is – the challenge. I’m really enjoying it because the first thing for me is that I really love this club from the very early days, and I’m able to keep serving it on a daily basis, with the experience I have in football from my career.
Arsenal has always provided young players with an opportunity, so I’m just following those footsteps of many greats who have done a brilliant job before me.
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Arsenal have given a first-team debut to a teenager in every single season since 1998. How proud are you to have continued that tradition?
I’m beyond proud because first of all, you have to understand this is teamwork. It’s a collective that’s so powerful and it’s what I rely on.
What I’m most proud of is building an environment where people are determined to do well for the club and to do well for each other. Let’s continue as long as possible, because it’s really worth it.
This is the “how”, and if the outcome is that young players are valued enough to get opportunities within the first team here, or even elsewhere, then it’s good.
Long term we are working to give opportunities to play at Emirates Stadium, which happens but is very rare, but we value every individual that comes into the Academy and we want to give them experiences that enhance their lives.
You must speak to a lot of people in football. What’s the worldwide reputation of Hale End?
I think it’s very big! It’s still growing, but Hale End as a “brand”, if I can call it that, is a massive statement all across the world. I hear that wherever I go.
When I go to my hometown in Germany, they know what’s going on here. I went to China recently, and even there I hear that Arsenal is at the forefront of what people see in terms of young players developing into top players and top people. That goes hand in hand.
That’s probably what I’m most proud of in terms of what we deliver. Is that we give room for growth in both of those areas in terms of habits and the characters that we create, but also the benefit that it will have for any kind of footballer.
We have great people and aspiring footballers here, and that goes worldwide.
Have the rules in place since Brexit made recruitment more difficult, and made competition even more fierce domestically?
Yes, competition for domestic players is very high. In the Premier League and Championship, you’ve got ten clubs in London all competing.
The first entry point for the Academy is at under-9, but even at the pre-academy level we are seeing a lot of competition. Anyone who looks talented on the ball at that age will be scouted. At that age if you have everyone telling you how talented you are and that we want you, you need the humility to deal with it.
We are trying to make sure that people understand what sort of club they are joining, in terms of what sort of programme we have to enhance their football, but also their personality to deal with the challenges that they face.
So yes, competition in pre-academy is a challenge, but we just show what we are about and then hope that the youngsters and the parents feel really comfortable with that. We also raise the bar in terms of how young we get our players into first-team football, because we break records in not only the Premier League, but Champions League as well.
The other side of that though is that it sets a precedent – it’s not the norm to be playing in the first team by 15!
It’s the absolute exception, so we need to cater for everybody, because everyone has a different pathway and people are different at different ages both physically and mentally. So that’s another challenge we face when we recruit younger.
In a nutshell, what has changed since the new Brexit rules have come in?
Through Brexit, we can’t bring over European talent when they are 16 anymore – it’s now 18. So we’re looking at our own players more, and the pathways we can create.
We go back to looking at the pre-academy and laying the foundation there, but also while adding in a couple of new players along the way. We also believe in the longevity of our pathway, and most of the Academy products who are now with the first team all started right back in the first intake at under-9s in Hale End.
You look at Bukayo, Myles, Ethan, plus Max Dowman and Andre Harriman-Annous, they all started in the foundation phase with us. That shows the consistency of the work we’re doing.
But that doesn’t mean we don’t recruit domestically as well at other age groups when we get the opportunities and we feel we have that need. But getting players like Hector Bellerin, Cesc Fabregas, Emiliano Martinez – we cannot do that anymore.
I think that’s a shame too, because domestic players could benefit from being exposed to this European style as well, but the rules have changed. We have to live with that.
You mentioned Max Dowman coming through and breaking records. What challenges does it present to the Academy when you have a player who is that good, that early in his career?
There are obviously challenges around his pathway. Just looking back to last season when he was an under-15 playing under-19s football for us. At under-19s we play midweek, home and away which means first of all that he’s playing four age groups up.
Secondly we need to manage the logistics around his school, make sure he is well supported and equipped so that he doesn’t lose out on the important steps of his life. He’s around much older players, but at that age you want – and need – to be around your own friends as well.
So a lot of challenges, but it’s credit to his parents and siblings that they are supporting and guiding him. This lad has really excelled, and you have to give him a lot of credit for not being fazed by the challenges and dealing with everything in such a mature way. That can only happen if the family and school backgrounds are stable and if there is a real trust around him.
He is sitting his exams, and he goes away with England too, so for it to all work and for him to be able to make up the school time he misses, a lot of people – and first and foremost himself – have done an incredible job. So it really is a big joined up project.
There are challenges around when we play him too, because it comes to a point where whatever age group he was playing at, he was still one of the best on the pitch. Last season we couldn’t play him in the under-21s for example, because of the rules and regulations. Now, as an under-16, he can, and he can go on pre-season with the first team.
That helps, because at that time he was off school in the summer, but still we wanted to find him recovery time as he had been playing under-17s with England – so all of those considerations are taken into account every time we make a decision with him.
But how he has excelled through first team action and training, he’s now rightly and deservedly up there, but the challenges continue.
We have got an outstanding talent on our hands who we want to stand strong in the face of the challenges he faces. He’s mastering them at the moment, but we will be by his side alongside his family.
It’s not just him though, Andre and Marli Salmon have made their Champions Leagues debut this season. Marli is only a few months older than Max. We have a range of youngsters making their mark and that’s important for them all to have a peer group with them.
Are these players inspiring the next generation as well?
Yes, the rest of the players in the system see there is a pathway for them. Marli is playing Champions League and for the under-21s as a first-year scholar, Andre is playing first team and starting in the Carabao Cup.
We’re trying to keep them as grounded as possible because there are so many moving pieces. You could start in the Carabao Cup one day, and the next day you could be training with the 21s. So you have to be adaptable and ready.
Then really the question is, “How can I be the best I can be, regardless of where and when I am playing?” The players drive their own development like that. And it also speaks of how Mikel and the coaching staff trust our young players.
To play in any men’s first-team game, especially here with our first-team squad how it is, it’s a lot! I get the feeling always that the first thought at the club is, “Do we have someone in our Academy who can enhance our squad?” We have been active in the transfer market, but there’s also the thought that we have top youngsters who can contribute to the first team straight away.
Last year we saw Ethan and Myles break through. We have strong talent here, Mikel is doing so much, and we really feel that there’s a lot of trust in the work we’re doing.
Is the League Cup still seen as an opportunity for the young players?
Yes, I think Mikel sees the Carabao Cup as one conveyor belt to see the youngsters in a competitive environment, but remember he still he sees them a lot in training too.
But there is another level to it when you put them out there in front of 60,000 at the Emirates or an away game. We’re here to develop, but we need to win, and that goes hand in hand.
Are you disappointed with how results in the UEFA Youth League went this season?
Yes, but there’s context behind it. We like that competition. That's the first thing, because it gives us that extra element of what competition looks like in Europe. These players in Europe are right on it, for the moments that matter in games.
Set pieces, duels, transitions – they are on us. So it’s great for the players to experience that. Talented players exist everywhere so you have to compete with them. We mash together the under-19s from our under-18s and 21s, whereas in Europe they are more used to playing with each other at that age group.
We don’t train together as an under-19 team. So that’s the context, but it’s our challenge and we are trying to improve on that because it’s an amazing competition to play in.
Finally, the FA Youth Cup got underway for us last week. Is that competition a priority for us this season?
It’s always been a priority, because if we advance to the quarter-final and have a home game, we play at Emirates Stadium. These games are so valuable, and the players embrace that competition so much. The experience is amazing.
You have to match the physicality of whoever you come up against, and sometimes you might meet a team who have in their head that it’s the biggest game of the season, so you have to deal with that as well.
It serves us with a lot of challenges and we see a lot of benefits in developing through it, but also trying to win it.
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