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Dennis Praet Reveals Why Arsenal Deal Fell Through
Young Belgian Attacking Midfielder Dennis Praet will line up against Arsenal tonight but it could have been very different if Praet’s proposed deal to Arsenal had gone through 4 years ago. If Praet goes on to be instrumental in an Anderlecht result tonight, which if we continue to perform poorly is not out of the realms of possibility, then Wenger may regret his decisions not to encourage the Belgian’s move to North London.
Dennis Praet claims to have chosen Anderlecht over Arsenal so that he could continue with school
Speaking to HLN ahead of the Champions League clash tonight, Dennis Praet stated his major reason for staying with the Belgian outfit was academic. Seriously, he wanted to finish school in Belgium. Given that some players give up all hope of any schooling by moving to foreign countries in any hope that they will play for a big team, this is a very mature approach by the young player to make this choice.
He also explained that on the trial he played a match with the reserves team, was taken around the training complex and even trained for a while with the first team. Yet despite doing all of this he never met Arsene Wenger. Surely if a 16 year old is worth training with the first team it’s worth introducing him to the manager? And if you’re the manager, wouldn’t you want to see the player that you might be signing at the age of 16?
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Either way he said that Arsenal’s focus on his footballing progress from 16-18 would have meant that playing would have taken priority over school work and Praet said that he wasn’t prepared to sacrifice this much. Should we start introducing a schooling system for young stars that we pick up at 16?
Having an academy relationship which allows young players to complete their schooling would allow them to benefit greatly from not focusing directly on the football, and also with players coming increasingly under pressure to look after their fitness at a young age this could prove to be very profitable in the future. What do you guys think?