Liam Brady praises academy

In the wake of the potential signing of Luke Freeman from Gillingham, Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger revealed that the way forward for the club will be English. Arsenal's academy director Liam Brady has today said that the youth coming through is the best yet.

"I'm very excited about what we have at Under-16, Under-17 and Under-18 level, especially with regards to the English boys," he told arsenal.com.

"They have done ever so well in the Under-18s league so far this season, as in the main we have played with the Under-16s and 17s. We are top of our section at the moment, and the Reserve team is doing very well also and that mainly consists of our second year boys.

"In fact I would say this is probably the healthiest state the Academy has been in since I've been here.

"I think that's because we are starting to see the first generation of players who have come all the way through the age groups at Hale End.

"Boys like Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, Henri Lansbury, Jack Wilshere, Emmanuel Frimpong and Sanchez Watt have all attained England schoolboy recognition and they have been with us since they were nine and ten.

"Roy Massey deserves great credit for all the work he has done with the younger players at Hale End."