Arsenal's young guns shown the exit door

Arsenal's young guns shown the exit door

Marc Fox

While transfer news surrounding Arsenal has been dominated by Alexis Sanchez's switch to Old Trafford in a swap deal with Henrikh Mkhitaryan, the press coverage of a similar move by a similar - albeit English - player has somewhat flown under the radar.

The player in question is, of course, Theo Walcott, who has become the third homegrown player to leave Arsenal in the past year and yet another of the generation of Englishmen that were touted as providing the counterbalance to Arsene Wenger's original turning away from local talent at the beginning of the 2000s.

Remember Wenger was the first coach in English football history to field an all-foreign 16-man squad against Crystal Palace in 2005.

However, by the beginning of the next decade - and with Arsenal's wait for a follow-up title to their 2004 triumph prolonging - the Frenchman somewhat changed tack by placing his faith in a core of young English players who were anticipated to provide the backbone to Arsenal's - and England's - chase for trophies.
Fast forward five years and those plans are long forgotten.

Of the four young English players who signed long-term deals in December 2012 alongside Wales' Aaron Ramsey, only Jack Wilshire is playing for Arsenal this season after a loan spell at Bournemouth last season - and he has not yet agreed an extension to his contract that runs out in June.

It has been reported that Wilshire - arguably the most naturally talented of Arsenal's English contingent - will have to accept a pay cut to stay at the Gunners given his recent form on the back of a wretched injury record.

Carl Jenkinson has made just 38 appearances for Arsenal since joining in 2011 through a combination of injury and loan spells away from his parent club with West Ham United and, latterly, Birmingham City in the Championship.
The 25-year-old defender's solitary international appearance for England came in November 2012.

Kieran Gibbs, an academy product, was sold to West Brom last summer for a bargain basement fee, as was Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who switched to Liverpool in a deal worth £35 million after he entered the final year of his contract and made it clear he would be seeking pastures new to re-emphasise his credentials in a World Cup year.

Following Gibbs and Oxlade-Chamberlain, Walcott has now also been deemed surplus to requirements in North London.

The England winger has moved to Everton for a fee in the region of £20 million after 12 years at Arsenal and without truly realising his vast potential with either club or country.

Walcott - amazingly - did not manage to start for Wenger's side in the Premier League this season and has turned to new Everton manager Sam Allardyce to revitalise his ailing career, admitting that his treatment at Arsenal this year had left him disappointed.

"If you're not playing you're going to be upset. For whatever reason it didn't happen this year. That's why I've moved on," said Walcott, capped 47 times by England since blasting onto the international stage when called up to Sven-Goran Eriksson's 2006 World Cup squad as a teenager.

"But I've known Arsene Wenger since I was 16 and to bring in a young player like that and have belief in him - I cannot thank him enough."

Wenger, it should be noted, has given a chance to 20-year-old Ainsley Maitland-Niles at left back in the past month, another English prospect who has represented the national team from under-17 to under-21 level. Meanwhile, Calum Chambers and Rob Holding have also seen game time this season, although Danny Welbeck remains a peripheral figure.

But the chance of Wenger fielding another all-overseas team in the Premier League in the future should not be unexpected, a damning conclusion on his transfer dealings and development of young talent and not one that has gone unnoticed across North London at Tottenham, who have latterly provided the core of England's senior team in Danny Rose, Kieran Trippier, Eric Dier, Harry Winks, Dele Alli and Harry Kane.

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