Arsenal have had some amazing footballers that have come up through the ranks. The following players were all at Arsenal as young boys and grew up to be Arsenal men. These are the 5 players that I believe are the best our youth team has ever produced:
5. David Rocastle
‘Rocky’ Rocastle was signed up to Arsenal’s youth team as a schoolboy in 1983 and he made his way up through the ranks, making his first team debut in 1985. Rocastle was a brilliant midfielder. I only caught a couple of years of his time at Arsenal as I was quite young, but the season in which he stood out and become one of my favourite players was the 88/89 season. This was the season we won the league, he played every game and he was brilliant to watch. He was just so fast and had immense control and dribbling skills. He spent ten years at Arsenal and he is definitely one of the best players in our history, a true Arsenal man through and through.
4. Michael Thomas
Ah, who can forget this Arsenal legend, good old Mickey Thomas signed up to Arsenal as a schoolboy in 1982, making his first team debut in 84. Thomas is famous for that 88th minute goal against Liverpool that won us the league in 89. He was so much more than that though. He was able to play in midfield, but more than often not, he would feature as a right-back-and one who scored. He was the player that ran his little heart out on the pitch. He would make these awesome runs, he would surge forward and score goals that no-one was expecting. I adored watching him play and he was my favourite player at the time.
3. Paul Merson
I always loved Paul Merson and I still do. I know people might have issues with him due to his addictions, but despite them, he still turned up every weekend and played football and that’s love. Paul Merson joined Arsenal as a schoolboy in 1984 and made his full debut in 86. He played an impressive amount of games in his career at Arsenal, with 423 appearances and 99 goals. He was that out-and-out midfielder that just fed the ball to the strikers with ease and he was always an integral part of the Arsenal team. When Wenger sold Merson in 97, the fans were in shock, we all still wanted him at Arsenal. Merson was Arsenal through and through, he had passion and heart and will always be remembered as one of the greats.
Jack Wilshere needs to have more achievements to be included in the top 5.
Yes,the rest of the players in the list played for exceptional teams while Jack is playing for an average team. But you have to have won something to be included in the list although there is no doubt that Wilshere is clearly the most talented in the list.