How Arsenal Youth Recruitment Strategy Has Changed

Arsenal have made big changes to their youth recruitment.

One look at the Arsenal youth signings made by Per Mertesacker this summer – George Lewis, Tim Akinola and Jonathan Dinzeyi to name a few – and it’s clearly a departure from the policy of signing talented players in their mid-teens but not much ahead in their development, orginally adopted by Arsene Wenger. Omar Rekik has followed suit this winter.

This new approach was referred to as ‘adding development players’ by Mertesacker: players who arrived for free or a small fee, have some first-team experience, are raw but talented, and under right coaching, could be nurtured into players ready for the first-team or being sold to other clubs for a tidy profit.

Put simply, signing players who are some way ahead in the development cycle but can still develop into useful players with high market value. This is Arsenal starting to become street-smart in their youth recruitment, after watching clubs like Chelsea reap rewards for the same.

Wenger had an eye for finding young, eye-catching talent who morphed into world-class players: Cesc Fabregas, Nicolas Anelka, Patrick Vieira, Thierry Henry and so many more. One common theme, however, with many of these success stories were they were mostly made at the turn of the century, at a time when scout reports and statistics were less accessible. An excellent scouting team helped Wenger rule the market.

A decade later, in financial complications, he turned again to youth to help his team bounce back. However, most of them rarely turned into good players. For every Aaron Ramsey, there were Fran Merida and Carlos Vela. It seemed that he had lost his magic touch.

Statistics was slowly being integrated into football at that time and numbers were an important criteria in judging players. To get with the modern times, Arsenal purchased sports analytics company StatDNA, with the hope that Arsenal will again rule market with a new analytical approach. The result: Kevin De Bruyne was deemed unsuited to the rough and tumble of English game and Yaya Sanogo was deemed a better than Antoine Griezmann.  Neither the technology worked nor the scouting. Arguably, best signings of this period were mostly established players.

Youth recruitment was slow, involved many moving parts and the setup was clearly inept. Most of the times, Arsenal were beaten to young, prodigious talent by more ruthless and efficient clubs, Real Madrid’s capture of Fede Valverde, having beating the Gunners to the punch being a recent example.

It was clear that the youth policy needed to be altered. Mertesacker was appointed Academy Manager in 2017 and Sven Mislintat arrived from Borussia Dortmund to unearth gems like Wenger used to do in his heyday. A year later with Wenger’s departure, StatDNA was sidelined in favour of a more agent based approach with Raul Sanllehi at the helm. Sven had a fleeting impact, underwhelming during his time before eventually departing. During the pandemic, Arsenal downsized the scouting department.

Mertesacker has even more responsibility now to spot and bring talent to north London. The new recruitment structure is leaner and more responsive. He is now in his stead three years on from his appointment, firmly implementing a policy that can only help Arsenal, on the football pitch or finances or even both.

In addition, long-term contracts for players like Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli are a part of the effort to not have another Serge Gnabry – the one that got away. Folarin Balogun’s contract extension has to be the next, despite it appearing unlikely.

There is a focus on a clear route to the first team or selling when their market value is high when it comes to dealing with the youth. This is coupled with the shift in recruitment strategy for the future.

In case of players like Lewis, Akinola and Rekik, the gamble is small and rewards can be huge. Only time will tell if Arsenal will reap the rewards of this strategy, but it is a significant step in the right direction.