Arsenal Academy Gets No Love In Wonderkid Rankings

Arsenal supposedly have one of the best youth academies in the world of football, yet Goal.com’s rankings look to be of a different opinion regarding their crop.

Opinions are a dime a dozen. That being the case, we could just look at Goal.com‘s top 50 wonderkid rankings as another opinion. However, before we are able to do that, we must first look at the rankings and determine why we need to brush them off in the first place.

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With an academy like Arsenal’s, there are always going to be talented young players coming and going. Some, Arsenal has had since they were just wee lads. Others are brought in already bearing the wonderkid title. Whatever the case, once they put that Arsenal kit on, they have become part of the Arsenal family, no matter where they’ve come from.

Goal.com tends to think that all of Arsenal’s wonderkids that are worth anything have come from external sources. In fact, it is a distinct possibility that Goal.com is going solely based on monetary value instead of how the players have actually been performing.

Before I get too ahead of myself, here is a look at the list in its entirety:

Jeff Reine-Adelaide and Krystian Bielik are definitely deserving of whatever honor they can derive from a list from Goal.com. However, it gives the misrepresentation that the Arsenal Academy is no longer up to snuff.

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Two names that should have been on the doorstep of this list are Arsenal products through and through – Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Gedion Zelalem. Both are 18 years old and both have shown tremendous ability to bear the title of wonderkid.

We will start with Maitland-Niles. The speedy, technically deft winger should absolutely have been considered for this list. Aside from his prowess that he has shown on loan within England, he has also been more of a show in the England National youth ranks than Cameron Bothwhick-Jackson, who is Manchester United’s sole representation on this list.

Maitland-Niles has already managed to score three times in just 12 games for the three lions, yet for whatever reason, Goal.com decided to leave him off the list along with a heaping of other young English players that sit ahead of Bothwhick-Jackson in England’s overall youth spectrum. A little United favoritism? I wouldn’t doubt it.

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Meanwhile, the German-turned-American midfielder Gedion Zelalem is all the rage in Scotland, yet the 18 year old, who has made numerous appearances for both Germany (11) and the United States (9) was also left off the list. Zelalem is already on the brink of making the United States senior team and come the next major competition, he will have broken through.

It would not do to have four Arsenal prospects on this list, however. It would appear too biased and that is not my point. The point is that while Krystian Bielik has a lot of potential and he has shown that potential well, he still sits behind at least Maitland-Niles in Arsenal’s prospect list. The fact that he cost so much money and was the object of Wenger’s determined pursuit is what puts him on this list.

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This Arsenal academy is still a premium factory for young footballers and Zelalem and Maitland-Niles will both prove that case.