Arsenal’s crop of British starlets attracts attention

The appearance of a crop of outstanding young English players at Arsenal is great news for fans at the Emirates and of the national team. There's also another group with a slightly less seemly interest in the youngsters, writes Amy Lawrence in the Guardian: football agents.

"One agent had a particularly good reason to watch last night's FA Youth Cup semi-final between Arsenal and Manchester City. He had a vested interest in nine of the players on show, who are all on his books. Considering these two clubs possess the best academy sides this year, and he had a very healthy pick of them, he found it difficult to disguise his enthusiasm for the riches that lie in store."

After years of bringing through a multinational stream of starlets, Arsene Wenger is now focussing on homegrown talent. "Why? Because the domestic talent is coming through, and being properly nurtured, so the need to import more capable players is less pressing. It would be daft at this stage to make comparisons with the Fergie fledglings of the 1990s, but what this Arsenal crop does have - unusually - is a handful of players with a genuine chance of making it who have grown up alongside each other."

Let's just hope that the predatory agents don't get their hooks into youngsters such as 18-year-old Arsenal captain Jay Emmanuel-Thomas at too early an age. ·