THE GREATEST ARSENAL TEAM EVER ?
October 29, 2008
THE GREATEST ARSENAL TEAM EVER?
Pondering the delights of the ‘Mighty Arsenal ‘while sitting through an extremely boring budget projection workshop, I jotted down my greatest ever Arsenal team. The names that came to mind and the images of the football I had seen over the years opened the doors to a retrospective hour that enhanced and encapsulated my history as an Arsenal supporter.
The first game I went to was when Arsenal played at Upton Park in 1978. We couldn’t get tickets to the visitors section so we went in with the home supporters. I was 9 and spent an afternoon on the Upton Park terraces with the ICF (thanks dad). The last home game I went to was Arsenal against Everton in 1998 when my hero Tony Adams scored a blinding left foot volley following a sublime ball forward from centre back Stevie Bould. That moment was up there with Michael Thomas’s last minute winner at Anfield, the ‘79’ Cup Final and all the times we’ve beaten Spurs and the Manc’s. I have travelled to numerous grounds throughout England to watch ‘my team’ and since moving to New Zealand have had countless bleary eyed nights in front of Sky Sports. I therefore consider myself eligible to share my team with you.
The magic moments are what carry me through the hard times, when were not doing so well. My best ever team is compiled from players I remember watching and who have played in my life time. The predecessors to my team could include Ted Drake, Alex James, Cliff Bastin and David Jack. Brilliant I’m sure, but not entrenched enough in my memory to make my team. I pick my team based on my memories of the footballing brilliance these players have and their ability to define and uphold what Arsenal Football Club signifies to me as a Gooner. There are players I omitted because I didn’t believe that they had the dedication to the Arsenal that they should have. Ashley Cole would have been at left back, but I still have issues with the way he left the club and the departing messages to the supporters. Nicolas Anelka would have been on the bench, but he also didn’t emit the virtues I would expect from an Arsenal player.
JENNINGS
DIXON ADAMS(C) O’LEARY SANSOM
PIRES VIERA BRADY
BERGKAMP
WRIGHT HENRY
SUBS: SEAMAN, KEOWN, MERSON, ROCASTLE, THOMAS
MANAGER: ARSENE WENGER
The choice of Adams as captain was straightforward; he is Mr. Arsenal and is everything a captain should be. I would love to see him back at the club some day. He spent 22 years with Arsenal, 14 of them as captain. I can remember Liam Brady taunting Spurs in 1978 when we won 5-0 at the Lane of Shame, and that Cup Final against the Manc’s in 79, what a dazzling footballer with a magic left foot. Brady continues to work wonders at the club with the Arsenal youth.
I was at Highbury to watch Paddy Vieira’s first game for us (‘Vieira wooah, he comes from Senegal, he plays for Arsenal’), a gazelle like individual, but with passion, stamina and skill to boot. Dennis Bergkamp is undoubtedly the best foreign footballer ever to play in England. Some may have a case for Cantona and Zola, but Bergkamp was a Dutch master who created footballing nirvana every time he graced the Highbury turf. His passing and tenacity in front of goal were breathtaking. Ian Wright was all about hunger, passion, pace and power. A bargain 2.5 million pounds from Crystal Palace in 1991, Wrighty then went on to break Cliff Bastin’s club goal scoring record. Thierry Henry was a mercurial Gallic genius with breathtaking speed and flair. Henry effortlessly broke Ian Wright’s scoring record. He was a prolific goal scorer for club and country and won the Premier League Golden Boot on four occasions. Imagine the top two goal scorers in Arsenal’s history playing in the same team, fantastic.
The choice of Jennings over Seaman was a tough one. I believe that Seaman had one of the best defence’s in the history of the English league in front of him and that without them he would have been a tad more exposed. He was also prone to the odd error (remember Nayim from the half way line in 1995). His short comings were also seen when he wore the shirt of England.
It was a concerted effort to get the team down to eleven men. Some of my fondest Arsenal memories are watching Paul Merson, Charlie Nicholas and David Rocastle passionately wearing the Arsenal crest on their chest. Also on the peripheral of my team were Francesc Fabregas, Sol Campbell, Marc Overmars and Romford Ray Parlour. A plethora of great players who had donned the famous red and white shirt.
All that is left to do is to pay a visit to the Emirates and witness the new breed emerging through the ranks. The youth emerging at Arsenal are astounding and the youngsters coming through the system as well as the kids we’ve scouted look extremely promising.
I wonder if Glichy will knock Sansom out of my team, or if Walcott can displace Bobby Pires? I consider that the places of Brady and Adams will always be a safe bet.
That’s my ‘Greatest Ever Arsenal Team’. Would you make any changes? Take a moment, reminisce and ponder the magnificence that is Arsenal.
Cheers
Gooner Baz
Cheers Baz , great article. If anyone else would like to submit theif Greatest Arsenal team, and their reasons behind it, please reply to this post.
Bill
Let’s hear it for the Arsenal
October 7, 2008
Most fans think their football club is special but it may be time to acknowledge that, to bastardise George Orwell, one club is more special than all the others. In these difficult economic times only one Premier League club is resisting – indeed actively fighting off – the rush to embrace a rich foreign businessman in the hope that they can buy success, and more importantly provide a massive dividend for the existing owners. Let’s hear it for the Arsenal.
Arsenal’s reliance on foreign players under Arsene Wenger has been the source of much mockery for some time, but it is not only in their adherence to ancient grammar that the club put their rivals to shame when it comes up upholding other English traditions.
The board’s determination to keep the club controlled by the families who have been its custodians for generations is such that they risked alienating Wenger by forcing out his great ally, David Dein, as well as being actively hostile to Alisher Usmanov and Stan Kroenke, at least initially. Peter Hill-Wood, the chairman, may have finally decided that Kroenke is “our sort” after all, though the American’s acceptance of a seat on the board is little more than the public affirmation of a marriage of convenience. The day when he is allowed to take control remains a long way off.
Arsenal’s determination to remain what they have always been since their foundation as Dial Square in Woolwich in 1886 – a football club run primarily in the interests of their supporters – is refreshing because it provides such an obvious counterpoint to the prevailing mood of the times.
It may have become commonplace since Roman Abramovich’s era-changing purchase of Chelsea five years ago, but the desperation of many clubs to sell up to whichever foreign billionaire happens to be passing through town is still profoundly distasteful. Newcastle United and Liverpool are the most obvious examples, but the For Sale signs are also flying high alongside the club crests on the front of stadiums at Tottenham Hotspur, Everton and Portsmouth. Newcastle demonstrate the dangers of buying or selling in haste, with chastened owner Mike Ashley forced to repent in leisurewear.
Arsenal’s stance is all the more noble as they pursue it despite mounting evidence that it is damaging their self interest, certainly in terms of player recruitment and therefore trophies won, but their defiance does bring some advantages.
While many clubs wax lyrical about their own traditions in many instances it amounts to little more than hot air, whereas Arsenal have established their own unique way of doing things. Wenger has established a system based on identifying the best young talent around the world and teaching them to play in the manner of the first team, as well as fitting in with the refined old Etonian traditions that still run through the club.
Even if Arsenal fail to win a trophy for a fourth successive trophy season their way of doing things will not change, which goes someway to explaining why Wenger will never come under pressure no matter how long he goes without providing silverware. In the modern game that is something special indeed.
Arsene Wenger’s generation game
October 5, 2008
The Arsenal boss is in a league of his own in the race to sign the world’s most gifted young talent
The Uefa Elite Coaches Forum is not so much a talking shop as a Harrods of football conversation. Even “special” delegates cannot help but be impressed. During a recess at the last meeting, in Nyon in Switzerland this month, Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsène Wenger were deep in discussion. Eager to be included, Jose Mourinho strolled over and remarked that here were the three of them, former rivals, now peers. The facial expressions of the other two suggested that, even for Mourinho, this was chutzpah. Enmity between Ferguson and Wenger has dissipated with the recognition that, in their profession, they alone are on a similar path and plane.
Mourinho has his titles, but trophies are just a fluctuating currency of managerial greatness. The bullion whose value endures is banked when a manager creates a legacy. Wenger, who celebrates 12 years at Arsenal this weekend, is as much the father of his football club as Ferguson is of Manchester United. No others in the game can say they are leaving such a stamp.
When a team of apprentice Gunners, eight of them teenagers, none older than 23, obliterated Sheffield United on Tuesday, it seemed Wenger had finally arrived at the perfect distillation of what he represents. Here was football played geometrically, elegantly, ruthlessly, with speed and elan — by kids. The FA Youth Cup began on Wednesday with Rolls- Royce Leisure v Retford United among the qualifying fixtures, but the real Rolls-Royce of youth development had already purred out of the garage.
Only at Arsenal could a Mexican boy mark his first start with three goals, each more impudent than the previous one: Carlos Vela, just 19, looks like an Aztec Robbie Fowler. Cesc Fabregas is merely 21. Only at Arsenal could a “new Fabregas” have emerged already: Fran Merida, another playmaker plucked from Barcelona, is his predecessor’s double except for being left-footed.
Wenger arrived in the Premier League months after United’s first championship with their “David Beckham generation” of youth products and the Frenchman believes he has the prodigies to change English football in the way Ferguson did in the 1990s. “We can achieve what United did,” Wenger said. “I feel we have the quality to be successful with this group. What has changed is patience levels have become shorter and we are in a situation where people say, ‘You haven’t won anything for three years, you need to win the championship’. Yes, that’s true, but I do what I believe is right and leave people to judge . . . and I feel I can be successful this way.”
Watching young Arsenal teams triumph in the Carling Cup is an annual pleasure but Tuesday was a phenomenon. The team was so green that one of its main stars, Jack Wilshere, has been given a 19-year-old, Theo Walcott, for a mentor. Wilshere joined first-team training when he was 15 and became Arsenal’s youngest league player, at 16 years and 256 days, when he featured against Blackburn.
Wenger was especially pleased that seven of the 14 starlets he used last week were British and the criticism that he ignores indigenous talent is being debunked. “We now have — surprise, surprise for you all — many good young English players,” he said. “Against Sheffield United we had four on the pitch at the start and they did really well. It was always a conscious effort to develop more, but the quality wasn’t always available. We still produced a number of good English players but now in every position in the youth team we have good ones.”
Wilshere has been with Arsenal from the age of nine, like another of Tuesday’s tyros, Gavin Hoyte. Their emergence is testimony to the work done by the club’s youth development department, headed by Liam Brady. Steve Bould, the under-18 coach, and Neil Banfield, who runs their reserves, are responsible for ensuring that youngsters graduate to the first team set-up already playing the “Arsenal way” but the driver of the club’s success with youth is talent identification.
Many prospects, such as Vela and before him Fabregas, Walcott and Denilson, go straight into the senior squad on arrival. After meeting the press on Friday, the manager held his weekly summit with Steve Rowley, his chief scout. There the latest young targets are reviewed and plans finalised regarding which weekend games Rowley’s global network of 23 star-spotters (seven in England, 16 abroad) should attend.
Rowley spent Friday morning showing Vela’s parents the club facilities. Three years ago his South American expert, Sandro Orlandelli, called from the world youth championships in Peru and told him: “Turn on your television.” Vela was starring in a preliminary game. Rowley immediately booked a flight that took him via Miami to Lima. He arrived for the final, in which Vela’s Mexico defeated a Brazil side featuring a player already on Rowley’s radar, Denilson. Real Madrid and Valencia were closing on Vela, the tournament’s golden boot winner, so Rowley moved to contact the striker’s club, Chivas, and by the next day had pulled off a deal.
Fortune always plays a part in scouting. In a hot-dog queue Orlandelli bumped into a man wearing a T-shirt bearing Vela’s picture: it was the player’s father and they struck up a rapport. But Vela might have chosen Arsenal in any case. Wenger’s willingness to blood talent is a powerful selling point. “The reputation of Wenger was the main thing that brought me to Arsenal,” Vela said.
Continuity is key. Brady has been in his post since Wenger took over. Rowley has scouted for Arsenal for 30 years: his first discoveries were Ray Parlour and an 11-year-old centre-back he saw playing for West Ham, Tony Adams. His job changed for ever when Wenger arrived in England. Previously, a trip outside the home counties was considered an event for an Arsenal scout. At their first meeting, Wenger said: “Steve, this weekend I want you to go to . . . Teresina.” It is a city in northern Brazil, requiring a journey to Rio de Janeiro, then a further five-hour flight to reach it. Rowley had travelled no further than Spain on holiday. Now he has more air miles than the Space Shuttle. He insists on watching every youngster personally before he is recommended to Wenger. Thoroughness is Rowley’s hallmark.
Every scout carries a laptop with access to Arsenal’s exhaustive worldwide database and, when they see a new talent, they file a report. If Rowley likes it, he will ask that the player be monitored in further games before sending a scout from another territory to provide a second opinion. Should the soundings still be positive, he will view the prospect himself. Only then is a dossier presented to Wenger. About 150 youngsters a year are examined in this way; only two or three are signed.
Sometimes it’s easy. “For Fabregras, you watch him once or twice and that’s enough,” said Rowley. “Other players may play in a poor league, so you need to watch them when they come up against a good team. There’s no set rule.”
Fabregas was spotted by Francis Cagigao, a typical member of Rowley’s network. Scouts must do more than find talent. Detective work is required. What is the player’s contract status? Does he have an agent? Who else is interested? And parents have to be charmed. Rowley looks for “personality, enthusiasm, knowledge, experience”, when appointing scouts, and an understanding of the “Arsenal way” is vital. Cagigao played for Arsenal, as did Gilles Grimandi, scout for France and Switzerland, Danny Karbassiyoon (US and Mexico) and Peter Clarke (Holland). Tony Banfield, who covers Italy, Croatia and Slovenia, is Neil’s son.
Foreign clubs — most recently Zenit St Petersburg — have offered Rowley big money to join them and a youth coach at Ajax Amsterdam described how, at every game, he scans the touchline to check for Rowley’s presence. “I don’t mind Chelsea or Bayern Munich or Milan turning up but, as soon as the big guy from Arsenal appears, I know I’m about to lose a good one,” the coach said.
Sometimes, though, only Wenger can make the difference. Aaron Ramsey chose Arsenal over United after the manager laid on a private jet to fly him and his parents to a meeting in Switzerland. Thirty clubs were pursuing Havard Nordtveit, a teenage Norwegian centre-half. The day Wenger returned from a holiday, Rowley buttonholed him about the player. The next morning, at six o’clock, Wenger was on a Ryanair flight to Norway to meet Nordtveit and his family.
Nordtveit and Brazilian full-back Pedro Botelho are on loan from Arsenal to Salamanca, where Vela spent a season while awaiting a UK work permit. Alex Song, Johan Djourou and Nicklas Bendtner are among others who have benefited from Wenger’s astute use of the loan system, while Merida had a sabbatical at Real Sociedad. Rowley says Wenger can spot in one practice session what his scouting team might take seven viewings to divine about a player. He knows that every recruit must be good enough to share a pitch with someone like Fabregas immediately. Wenger makes it policy to throw every new kid arriving straight into first-team training to assess his status. What does the manager seek in youngsters? “To be technically gifted, agile and intelligent,” he said.
Intelligent. Wenger believes footballers must tick four boxes. Only two relate to the physical; intellect and mentality are the others. Players with brainpower, he feels, analyse themselves and improve quicker. Rowley is looking at ways of bringing psychological testing into the recruitment process. His next scouting appointments will be in Australia and Africa. Arsenal’s reach is lengthened by Wenger’s contacts around the globe. His friend Jean-Michel Guillou, who discovered Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Eboue, has set up academies in Africa, Asia and Europe with which the club is in commercial partnerships. Scouting has saved Arsenal not millions but hundreds of millions. Last year Premier League clubs spent £120m on players aged 21 or younger. Fabregas was acquired for about £700,000. Vela, contrary to reports that he cost £2.5m, arrived for a £125,000 fee that will rise to £550,000 if he plays 50 first-team games.
Chelsea have lavished untold sums on a worldwide network of more than 60 scouts but have yet to find a Djourou, never mind a Fabregas. Liverpool have paid about £20m to bring 30 foreign youngsters into their youth ranks. Tottenham appointed Damien Commoli as football director because he worked with Wenger but that helped to prompt Martin Jol’s departure and Juande Ramos ignores the bulk of Commoli’s “finds”. At Newcastle, the controversial appointment of Dennis Wise and his team of player recruiters was made because owner Mike Ashley wanted to “do an Arsenal”.
The unique cannot be copied. The most respected systems outside Arsenal are those that go their own way — Leeds, Manchester City, Middlesbrough, Aston Villa. United had a lean spell with young players until Ferguson revitalised his system, learning from Wenger by expanding his world scouting network and using his greater spending scope to acquire top prospects such as Cristiano Ronaldo, whom Sporting Lisbon almost sold to Arsenal until United’s £12.2m bid.
Lionel Messi was another “one who got away”. At 16 the Argentine was interested in following his close friend Fabregas from Barça to Arsenal but work permit issues got in the way.
Perhaps at United, Liverpool or Chelsea, Wenger would not have been allowed three trophyless seasons but his conviction that silverware is round the corner if he keeps trusting in his young players is as powerful as was Ferguson’s when he let senior players leave United and promoted Beckham & Co. Perhaps in Nyon, Wenger and Ferguson were talking about a common philosophy.
“Why do I do it?” Wenger asked. “That’s the privilege of being a long time inside the club. You can win or lose but you can also give a culture and a way to play the game that lives beyond you.”
Teenage recruits of ‘Big Four’ out on loan
ARSENAL
Philippe Senderos (Milan) Pedro Botelho (Salamanca) Kerrea Gilbert (Leicester) Armand Traore (Portsmouth) Nacer Barazite (Derby) Havard Nordtveit (Salamanca)
MAN UTD
Danny Simpson (Blackburn) Fraizer Campbell (Spurs) Febian Brandy (Swansea) Tom Heaton (Cardiff) Lee Martin (Forest) Craig Cathcart (Plymouth)
LIVERPOOL
Godwin Antwi (Tranmere) Sebastian Leto (Olympiakos) Craig Lindfield (Bournemouth) Robbie Threlfall (Hereford) Adam Hammill (Blackpool) David Martin (Leicester) Jack Hobbs (Leicester) Paul Anderson (Forest)
CHELSEA
Lee Sawyer (Southend) Slobodan Rajkovic (FC Twente) Shaun Cummings (MK Dons) Ryan Bertrand (Norwich) Ben Sahar (Portsmouth)
Teenage kicks: How Arsenal’s rivals are playing catchup
MANCHESTER UNITED
Sir Alex Ferguson has borrowed from Arsène Wenger the principle that the search for talent must be a worldwide one and refreshed his global scouting network. He has brought in fewer prospects, but ones who are already established. United gazumped Arsenal to buy Cristiano Ronaldo at 18. Wayne Rooney, Anderson, Rodrigo Possebon and the Da Silva twins also arrived as teenagers, all (including Ronaldo) costing £64m. At the same time, United have not forgotten local youth. Fraizer Campbell and Danny Welbeck are billed as future England strikers Notable young playersFraizer Campbell, Fabio and Rafael Da Silva, Danny Welbeck, Rodrigo Possebon
LIVERPOOL
Rafael Benitez has tried to recreate the ‘Wenger system’, with 30 young foreign players spread across his reserve and youth teams. The cost of this programme is estimated to be £20m and last week the club was linked with Aislan, a 20-year-old Brazilian valued at £10.5m. Prospects are starting to graduate into the first-team squad, such as Damien Plessis, a French midfielder, and Argentine full-back Emiliano Insua. Almost the entire 2006 FA Youth Cup-winning side, however, was discarded and the club parted company with academy director Steve Heighway Notable young playersEmiliano Insua, Damien Plessis, Daniel Pacheco, Krisztian Nemeth, David Ngog
CHELSEA
After spending £11m on a centre for the club’s youngsters, it cost more than £10m, in wages and compensation to Spurs, to employ Frank Arnesen as sporting director. More than 60 scouts are employed worldwide and about £30m is spent on teenage players. Yet Chelsea were humbled in last season’s FA Youth Cup final by Manchester City. They have also been active in poaching youngsters from English academies and settled out of court to avoid action after signing Tom Taiwo and Michael Woods from Leeds. Some fine players are emerging, including Scott Sinclair Notable young playersScott Sinclair, Michael Mancienne, Franco Di Santo, Slobodan Rajkovic
Superscouts
STEVE ROWLEY First struck gold for Arsenal when he poached an 11-year-old Tony Adams from West Ham. Travels the globe to see every prospect personally and enjoys a close relationship with Wenger
FRANCIS CAGIGAO A former Barcelona player, he is Wenger’s eyes and ears in Spain and Portugal. Cagigao’s biggest coups were alerting the boss to Cesc Fabregas when the player was 14 and then helping lure a second Barça prodigy, Fran Merida
JOHN CALVERT-TOULMIN Hit a rich seam of success for United in Brazil, where he was instrumental in the deal that took Fabio and Rafael Da Silva to Old Trafford and spotted midfield prodigy Rodrigo Possebon at Internacional
EDUARDO MACIA Joined Liverpool after working with Rafa Benitez at Valencia as sporting director. Macia has played a major part in recruiting Liverpool’s Spanish prospects, who include Daniel Pacheco, a striker signed from Barcelona, and Gerardo Bruna, a midfield star poached from Real Madrid
29.2
The amount in millions that it has cost Arsenal for the 12 players brought in as teenagers. United have spent £64m, Liverpool about £20m and Chelsea £35m pursuing the same policy
THE WORLD STAR
Carlos Vela, 19 Sandro Orlandelli, Arsenal’s Brazil scout, was at the 2005 World Under17 tournament when he called Steve Rowley to say, ‘turn on your TV!’ n Rowley flew straight to Peru and after watching Vela in the final tied up a deal with his club Chivas n English clubs can sign anyone from the European Economic Area provided they are over 16 but work permit restrictions apply to players from further afield, such as Vela, from Mexico. Because he was not a full international, Arsenal had to ‘park’ him in Spain for two-and-a-half years, first at Celta Vigo then at Salamanca and Osasuna n After meeting criteria by proving himself to be a ‘player of outstanding value’, Vela was granted a work permit for Britain in May and scored a hat-trick in his first competitive start for Arsenal against Sheffield Utd
THE EURO STAR
Cesc Fabregas, 21 European scout Francis Cagigao was so stunned when he saw Fabregas in an Under15 game in Barcelona, he phoned Rowley from pitchside to say, ‘Steve, you’ve got to come over…’ n In Spain clubs are prohibited from awarding professional contracts until players are 18. Arsenal exploited this loophole to lure Fabregas. No transfer fee was involved and a compensation sum of £700,000 was paid instead n Fabregas looked so at home he never left and became Arsenal’s youngest ever first-team debutant, aged 16 years and 177 days
THE HOMEGROWN WONDER
Jack Wilshere, 16 Premier League rules only allow clubs to recruit players under 14 who live within 60 minutes’ travel time from their academies and Arsenal must vie with 15 other clubs in the London area. After a hiatus the Gunners are once more proving adroit at discovering local gems, such as Wilshere, who hails from Hertfordshire n Players must be eight or older before they can sign forms. Wilshere was nine. Around 120 boys attend the academy at Hale End and Wilshere was developed by a team of Under18s coaches headed by former player Steve Bould n Wenger believes in fast-tracking. Wilshere made his reserve debut shortly after his 16th birthday and was one of five kids selected to join the first-team squad for preseason training in Austria n Impressing there, he made his first-team debut against Blackburn aged 16 years and 256 days and is seen as the best English player of his age since Wayne Rooney
THE FEEDER CLUB AFRICAN
Emmanuel Eboue, 25 From 2001 to 2006 Arsenal had a feeder-club link with Beveren in Belgium, formed through Wenger’s close friendship with French guru Jean Michel Guillou, who sent players to Europe from the ASEC Academy in Abidjan, the Ivory Coast. n Kolo Toure went straight from ASEC to Arsenal. Eboue went to Beveren first, before being signed by Wenger. Guillou now runs a worldwide group of academies with which Arsenal have a commercial tie-up n Steve Morrow, the club’s former midfielder, oversees the link as part of his duties as International Partnerships Performance Supervisor and Wenger is in line to snap up any talent emerging from the ‘JMG Academies’ in Vietnam, Thailand, Egypt, Algeria, Madagascar, Mali, Ghana and Belgium
THE BRITISH PROSPECT
Theo Walcott, 19 After impressing at Southampton, the forward was snapped up by Wenger in January 2006, when he was 16, for an initial fee of £5m, eventually rising to £9.1m, though he did not sign a professional contract until he turned 17 in March 2006 n The subject of much hype when he was called up to the 2006 World Cup squad without making a League appearance, he has been slowly integrated into the club’s starting eleven. In August 2006, he became the youngest ever Arsenal player in European competition but did not make his first Premier League start until October 2006. Confirmation of his talent came earlier this month when he became the youngest England player to score a hat-trick, in the 4-1 win over Croatia
THE BEST OF THE REST FROM TUESDAY NIGHT…
1 Alexandre Song, aged 21, from Cameroon and Young Player of the Tournament in this year’s African Nations Cup
2 Carlos Vela, 19, see above
3 Aaron Ramsey, 17, helped Cardiff to last season’s FA Cup final, then joined for £5m
4 Johan Djourou, 21, the Swiss centre-back recently celebrated a new contract
5 Kieran Gibbs, 19, his improvement at left-back has made him understudy to Gael Clichy
6 Jack Wilshere, 16, see above
7 Gavin Hoyte, 18, older brother Justin moved to Sunderland in the summer, allowing Gavin to step into the right-back position
8 Mark Randall, 19, the fourth Englishman in the lineup, he is another creative midfielder
9 Fran Merida, 18, Barcelona-born midfielder recently returned from loan in Spain
10 Nicklas Bendtner, 20, forward who was the most experienced player with 21 Danish caps
Lukasz Fabianski , 23, Polish international who was captain on Tuesday
