Sunday, January 13, 2008

Brady: Arsenal's Academy Stronger Than Ever Liam Brady, the head of the Arsenal academy, says the talent coming through the club is the best since he

Liam Brady, the former Arsenal, Juventus and Republic of Ireland midfielder, rejoined the Gunners in July 1996 as Head of Youth Development and Academy Director - and reckons the present crop of young talent at he club is he best he's been involved with.

"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."

Under Brady, Arsenal's youth sides have won the FA Premier Youth League in 1997-98, the FA Premier Academy League U17 title in 2001-02, the FA Youth Cup in 1999-00 and 2000-01 and the FA Premier Academy League U19 title in 2001-02.

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