Top 10 Arsenal academy talents

[say yes]

Slightly harder than the other threads, but the evident interest on this forum in guys like Saka / ESR got me thinking.

Who would you say are the top ten talents to have ever come out of the Hale End academy? (if you’re really knowledgeable you could also rank the current prospects)

Spoiler: My list

Waiting for @MutableEarth to post his first so I can copy it

 

[BigPoppaPump]

Tony Adams
Martin Keown
Ashley Cole
Andy Cole
Ray Parlour
Paul Merson
David Rocastle
Szczney
Bellerin
Wilshere

Our academy has been dogsh*t since the 2000s tbh, can't remember the last good player we produced. Bellerin doesn't even count really.

 

[Notorious Big]

 

[Riou]

Tony Adams
Martin Keown
Ashley Cole
Andy Cole
Ray Parlour
Paul Merson
David Rocastle
Szczney
Bellerin
Wilshere

Our academy has been dogsh*t since the 2000s tbh, can't remember the last good player we produced. Bellerin doesn't even count really.

This is the list really, though Gnabry should be in instead of Hector.

 

[BigPoppaPump]

This is the list really, though Gnabry should be in instead of Hector.

Should Bellerin and Gnabry even count?

 

[Riou]

Should Bellerin and Gnabry even count?

If Andy Cole does, then they should...you could technically get Cesc in too, as he spent a year in our reserves

 

[BigPoppaPump]

If Andy Cole does, then they should...you could technically get Cesc in too, as he spent a year in our reserves

But he started his career at Arsenal. We got those guys from La Masia or Germany, they weren't really youth products.

 

[GDeep™]

Bellerin, Gnabry, Chesney, Cesc etc are from elsewhere. They are not academy products. Can’t be taking any lists serious if you’ve got kids who were plucked from elsewhere.

 

[MutableEarth]

This is a tough one as not a lot of us are so old that we remember the OGs like Adams, Keown, Parlour, Rocky in the real early fledgeling part of their careers and barely any of us will remember before that aswell. If we're speaking of Arsenal from 80s onwards going by their achievements in the 90s (at least what I can remember as I'm not that old either :

1. Tony Adams
2. Ashley Cole
3. Martin Keown
4. Ray Parlour
5. David Rocastle
6. Paul Merson
7. Jack Wilshere
8. Kevin Campbell
9. Andy Cole (he's low because he hardly ever played for us)
10. Niall Quinn (had a decent run)

All guys who had very good careers in the league and came from the early set-up.

As an aside, I have strong opinions about the academy from the inception of Hale End as we know it in 1999. There were a lot of players who had immense talent in the last 10-15 years, especially from the 2008 class, and I consider it an unfortunate failure that we didn't reap enough from that group. The captain of that team being JET, who I thought would have been a superstar if he really wanted it enough. There are some guys I don't really count as Hale End (Gnabry, Bellerin etc) because they came as scholars so they went straight to Colney. At a push you could include them but I've chosen not to. If I did a post-Anelka top 10 in terms of their career (projected in a couple cases), it would look like this:

1. Ashely Cole
2. Jack Wilshere
3. Wojcech Szceszny
4. Alex Iwobi
5. Kieran Gibbs
6. Bukayo Saka
7. Steven Sidwell
8. Isaac Hayden
9. Jerome Thomas
10. Sebastian Larsson

Now if I did it solely off of ability and talent it would not only look completely different but be much harder to quantify. The likes of Chuks Aneke, JET and Alban Bunjaku (remember him? ) would be higher. Stephy Mavididi would be in the conversation too, he's arguably one of our stronger Hale End talents and is doing pretty well in Ligue 1 at the moment.

I still believe the current crop are the strongest though. The sheer number of talents who could potentially be first teamers - Saka, Nketiah (question marks over whether he counts as he joined at 14/15), Willock, Nelson, ESR, AMN. In terms of overall ability and attitude. I've been keeping up with the youth team for years and this is the best crop since 08/09, even better than Iwobi's group. Time will still tell for them but they're very promising. I believe the best is yet to come (Azeez, Balogun, Smith, Patino etc) and we have a setup that is actively putting itself in position to take advantage.

 

[Fewtch]

1. Kane
2. Wilshere
3. Saka
4. Nelson
5. Gibbs
6. Iwobi
7. AMN
8. Isaac Hayden
9. Jay Simpson
10. Dench

 

[truth_hurts]

Ashley Cole and Jack Wilshere are the only two to have an impact here. Saka is having an impact now.

We've saw far more Ryan Smith and Owusu Obeyi', who both looked extreme talents, over the past 15 years than first team material.

Would Benik Afobe make a top 10 list? He's carved a decent career.

I'm too young to talk about the rise of Rocastle or Adam's.

 

[krackpot]

from the ones I have seen:

1. Tony Adams
2. Ashley Cole
3. Sczezney
4. Wilshere
5. Iwobi
6. Gibbs
7. Oguzan Ozyankup
8. Benik Afobe
9. Walcott (He was a baby when he came over)
10. Fabregas (he's last becasue he was technically a barca player on loan)

The ones that got away, or we will rue them:
Kolo Toure (Wenger basically brought him up)
Serge Gnabry
'arry Kane
Isaac Hayden
Krystian Beilik
Chuks Aneke
Jon Toral
Chuba Akpom

edit: Saka looks like a top 3 at his current potential

 

[Kav]

Pay attention to the following:

closest to first team :

• Tyrese John Jules (a bit like Robbie Keane)
• James Olayinka
• Jordi Osei Tutu

Youngsters with high potential:

• Folarin Balogun ( this kid will be a star)
• Matt Smith ( think a younger James Maddison)
• Catalin Cirjan
• Zech Medley

These are the ones I have seen play in a few games. Good prospects. One thing I don’t like though about most of these Young footballers, they don’t have that street baller instincts anymore.