Things haven’t been going well for Arsenal lately, so it’s only natural that a series of people related to the club will take to the media to give their take on what needs to change.
There are so many things you could point your finger at – a manager out of his depth, a lack of investment in the first team, a board who doesn’t care, fans who turn on their own players and signing David Luiz to fix a leaky defence. They are all valid concerns, but Robert Pires has blamed something else.
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According to a report from The Athletic via The Metro, he thinks the lack of English players in the team is holding the team back. Speaking about the make up of the squad he said:
“You need to be born here. It’s very nice when you get to discover new countries but for me when you play in England you need English players. It’s a different time. But I used to play with David Seaman, Lee Dixon, Tony Adams, Martin Keown, Ashley Cole, Ray Parlour.”
There’s been talk for years about Arsenal getting softer as Arsene Wenger signed a lot of talented footballers from all over the world, but they always seemed a bit startled whenever a team got physical with them.
Robert Pires still coaches from time to time at Arsenal and played in some of the great Gunners teams earlier in the century so he certainly knows what he’s talking about, but you have to wonder where these players would come from.
To sign English talent from other clubs will cost a lot of money, while you can’t just magic five or six English players from the youth team either. It might be a valid point, but it’s something that could be very difficult to fix.