Nickname(s) The Gunners Ground Hale End Founded 1954 | Training ground Hale End Training Centre Chairman Chips Keswick | |
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Full name Arsenal Football Club Academy League Professional Development League | ||
Arsenal Football Club Academy is the youth team setup of Arsenal Football Club based in Hale End, London, England. They currently play in the Professional Development League, the highest level of youth football in England. The club also features within the FA Youth Cup and the UEFA Youth League as well. The academy enters Under-18 and Under-16 teams in these tourneys, in all operating the academy for boys from the ages of nine years old upwards. The Netherland's Andries Jonker was in prior at the helm of Arsenal's academy at Hale End with Englishman Luke Hobbs now at the helm.
Contents
- Arsenal Youth 19541998
- Arsenal Academy 1998present
- U18 League
- Schoolboys
- Current Staff
- Honours
- International academy graduates
- References
Arsenal's Academy is one of the most successful within England winning seven FA Youth Cups together with six Premier Academy League titles as well.
Arsenal Youth (1954–1998)
Arsenal have occasionally operated a youth team as far back as 1893–94, and there had been an established third team known as Arsenal 'A' for young players from 1929 to 1969.
The club have played in the FA Youth Cup since the 1954–55 season and they entered the South Eastern Counties League that was renamed the South East Counties League the following season and the associated South East Counties League Cup from 1955 to 1998 with the exclusion of the seasons being 1968 and 1969. Arsenal's Academy won the Counties League in 1956, 1965, 1972 and 1991 altogether. Arsenal's youths also played in the London Minor FA Challenge Cup from 1955 to 1956 as well as 1960 in towards 1967 and the Southern Junior Floodlit Cup which they won in 1956, 1972, 1975 and 1999.
Arsenal thus became, of youth teams in the country, the winners of seven South East Counties League titles and six South East Counties League Cups of which included three "doubles".
Arsenal Academy (1998–present)
The youth team became founder members of the FA Premier Youth League in 1997–98. The league was initially a single division and Arsenal won the inaugural title. The following season this was renamed the Premier Academy League and split into Under-19 and Under-17 sections, with the new FA Academy system formally changing Arsenal's youth team to Academy status. Arsenal entered teams in both sections, winning the U17 title in 1999–00 and the U19 title in 2001–02 as well as two more FA Youth Cups in 2000 and 2001.
Since 2004–05, the FA Premier Academy League has consisted of only a single section for Under-18s, although an Under-16 section is played with no league table being recorded. Arsenal U18s have won their division group (Group A) three times, in 2007–08, 2008–09 and 2009–10. They went on to win the academy play-off semi-final and final in 2008–09 and 2009–10 to become Premier Academy League champions. In 2009 they completed their first double by also winning the 2008–09 FA Youth Cup, having beaten Liverpool 6–2 on aggregate in the final.
Arsenal reached the semi finals of the NextGen Series in 2013 and got to the quarterfinals of the newly created UEFA Youth League in 2014. In 2016 Arsenal's U21s, so as for promotion to division one of the newly formed Professional Development League, got past the semi final play-offs and thus in the final became champions, beating Aston Villa by 3 goals to 1 at the Emirates Stadium.
The club's Academy at Hale End is currently undergoing renovations under the purview of academy chief Jonker. The work upon these halls of ivy are set to be fully completed in February 2017.
U18 League
The following players are eligible for the U18 Academy League in the current 2015–16 season.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Schoolboys
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Current Staff
The Netherland's Andries Jonker was in prior at the head of Arsenal's academy at Hale End with Englishman Luke Hobbs now at the helm. Some of the senior members of the academy also feature for Arsenal's U23s also known as Arsenal Reserves. The current head coach of the club's U21s is Steve Gatting with Carl Laraman as his assistant. Those other teams such as the U18s and U16s are coached by that of Kwame Ampadu and Trevor Bumstead with the U15s managed by Dutchman Jan Van Loon.
Honours
International academy graduates
This is a list of former Arsenal F.C. academy or Arsenal 'A' graduates who have gone on to represent their country at full international level since the Second World War. Players who are still at Arsenal, or play at another club on loan from Arsenal, are highlighted in bold.
As of 16 October 2016.