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‘I’d love it if our reserves could play in the league’
Wenger calls on the FA to consider Spanish-style ‘B’ teams
ARSENAL manager Arsene Wenger has revealed that he would love to see his young charges playing in the Football League.
The Gunners’ second string have hit the headlines time and again this season in the Carling Cup after beating full-strength teams from rivals Tottenham, Everton, West Brom and Liverpool en route to the final.
Meanwhile Arsenal’s under-18s are closing in on their divisional title and just missed out on a place in the final of the FA Youth Cup after losing out 4-3 on aggregate to Manchester United.
Wenger has also seen an emergence of promising young players such as Nicklas Bendtner, Kerrea Gilbert, Arturo Lupoli, Alex Song, Fabrice Muamba and Matthew Connolly all enjoy impressive loan spells this season.
Keen to take his future stars to the next level, the Frenchman is now calling for the Football Association to mirror the system in Spain, where the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona have B teams playing in lower divisions.
Asked if he would favour the Arsenal reserves playing in the Football League, Wenger revealed: “I would love it. What used to happen is that you had a Reserve League and an Under-18s League that was very important. What has happened now is the Under-18s League has transferred to the Reserve League.
“When you look at it these days, 90 per cent of the reserve games are played with under-18s players so one may have to be cut off. We have many players who play on Saturday for the under-18s and then again on Monday for the reserves.
“That means they play too many games and cannot practice,” Wenger added.
Meanwhile majestical midfielder Fran Merida has been talking about the disapointment of losing to Manchester United at Old Trafford on Monday in the semi-finals of the FA Youth Cup.
He said: “I feel really bad. We only had to wait one minute more to be in the final. But that’s football, that’s life and there’s nothing we can do now.” |
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