Mourinho Slates Arsenal’s Youth Policy

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As if all the fuss over the least violent “brawl” ever wasn’t enough, Jose Mourinho’s up to his tried and tested tricks of slagging off anyone he can as often as he can.

This time, he’s been just a little blunt about whether Arsenal’s approach to blooding young players is superior to Chelsea’s. We’ll give you a second to guess which Jose prefers…

Mourinho said in The Sun, “Can you tell me what a player prefers? To play a game here and there in the Carling Cup or be like Lassana Diarra.

“He waited and waited for a chance. But he kept working and when he went in the team, he went to stay.

“At this moment he is not playing just Carling Cup matches. He is also playing Champions League matches.

“So what is the best process? To give them little chances or to work them and put them there when they are completely ready and there is no chance to fail.

“Diarra went from being nobody to a Chelsea first-choice player.”

Arsenal’s approach is certainly the more spectacular and high profile, throwing talented youngsters into high profile situations and forcing them to step up will get you praised by neutrals and pundits. On the other hand, you could say that Chelsea’s approach of only using players when they’re absolutely ready will win them more silverware. The Carling Cup final is a case in point, Chelsea use their ‘first team’ players for virtually every match and it paid off with a trophy while all Wenger walked away with was a more mature batch of reserves.

Of course, the gold standard in the Premiership had been Manchester United. But until they start throwing out more players like Scholes, Giggs, Beckham, Butt and the Nevilles and less players like O’Shea and Fletcher, they might have to sit this one out.