Nigel Winterburn, the former Arsenal and West Ham defender, has said that Jack Wilshere can have an ‘outstanding career for Arsenal and England’ after the Gunners won 2-0 over Montpellier in the Champions League this week, with Wilshere scoring the first goal.
The limelight over our young talent has never been so strong, with recent England call ups for Liverpool star Raheem Sterling and Manchester United player Tom Cleverly. Certainly the pressure is on, Arsenal relying on it’s young players with the likes of Alex Olade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott seeing plenty of game time in the Premier League.
However, is all this attention on our young players to do well too much? Is the pressure on them too great, or do young players thrive on the limelight?
Certainly there are many positives to playing younger players; players like Sterling and Wilshere learn how to play at the professional level, from a young age, the theory is that they can only get better as they get older, they will develop confident and flair when playing football. Playing for the national team as well is a good moral boost, as there is nothing better then playing football for your country, with crowds in their thousands, with many more watching from home.
However, is the pressure too much for our young players? We see frustration from players when a shot goes wide, or they time a tackle wrong- certainly it’s not easy to recover from a frustrating performance, and with mounting pressure from fans, the manager and the media, I think it can be too much to handle sometimes. With our young talent however, playing next to world class stars, the likes of Luis Suárez, Ryan Giggs, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard only to name a few, I think that young players will relish every opportunity they get when on the pitch for their clubs.
The English media as well is very positive towards young players, with frequent praise and excitement for their potential. Roy Hodgson, speaking to the Metro said: “There are some very good young players coming on to the scene and the experienced players will find it harder and harder to fight off the challenge.” The challenge in out national team is very exciting with veterans like Wayne Rooney and Ashley Cole being challenged for first team football. This can only be a good thing, as it raises everyone’s performance, as playing for the national team is the highest honour.
Overall, I think the performance of our young players is overwhelmingly positives, players get the chance to learn from mistake, gain experience from playing regular football and it’s nice to see positive press about young stars. I think our football clubs work well in enhancing the young talent in this country and its encouraging to see so any positive young stars playing today which will be the stars of tomorrow I’m sure.
Hit me up on twitter @JoelEdwards92 to discuss any football related thoughts!
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Absolutely not. If they play for Man U they’ll be called the best thing since sliced bread even if they’re not. Others who are actually half decent will get so much expctation heaped upon them they’ll s=attract totally ridiculous price tags and end up imploding under the pressure.