5 replies to this topic

[Dorset]

Last week’s Youth Cup game between Chelsea and Arsenal was eagerly anticipated and regarded by many ‘in the know’ as a veritable modern day clash of the Academy titans. Of course, that was before the result [a far from Media-friendly win for the Blues] was known and as it whisked its way along the wires of supposedly neutral news outlets, such as the BBC’s regular sports update and SSN’s Sportsline, it somehow diminished in importance along the way, eventually failing to achieve even the most cursory of mentions. I found this to be not only a sad indictment of both organisation’s claim to always be first with the news, but also a classic example of the selective journalism employed whenever it suits them, as opposed to its deprived audience. If you think that’s an example of personal paranoia creeping in, then just imagine the coverage had we lost and think again.

Indeed, that’s just what I did, vowing to find something [anything] resembling an unbiased and informative report on proceedings somewhere within what was fast becoming a news blackout area. It took me until this morning when, at the end of an article by Duncan White in the Sunday Telegraph under the heading ‘Premier League clubs go to war in the battle to secure world's best young footballers’ a final paragraph informed the reader of the salient truth…

"Fans that feel proud of their club are bonded to it all the stronger and, while success can have the same effect, so does the idea that the club is generating its own talent. How else to explain the fact that some 8,000 turned up to watch holders Chelsea beat Arsenal 2-1 at Stamford Bridge in the FA Youth Cup on Thursday night (more than watched AC Milan beat Bari in the Coppa Italia on the same night)."

At last the newsworthy is released on the general public in the way that it was meant to be, albeit three days late and despite the fact that it followed an article that managed to cast Chelsea in a bad light over the Kakuta saga whilst at the same time praising Arsenal as the club ‘who have 56 players registered as under-21 for the Premier League’ and who ‘are the example other clubs are seeking to emulate.’ Thankful for small mercies, that’s me, and, buoyed by the experience, I immediately delved into Sky’s ’Sunday Supplement’ in search of further belated vindication. Should’ve known better…

Naturally enough, there was debate aplenty on our current Premiership plight on the program, together with reasons for it that were all too easy to come by for the likes of Sam Wallace, who these days cannot let any in-front-of-camera opportunity go by without making reference to our failures. Constantly in denial over our Academy success stories, perhaps even extending to the very existence of the building itself, here he was saying that the system was in a mess with the only player of note produced being Josh McEachran whilst others, such as Bruma and van Aanholt (presumably the only other names he knew) failing to reach the high standard he clearly expected to be reached before any form of ’success’ could be claimed.

By now warming to his subject, dim Sam summed up by returning to Josh, singing his praises, but with the incredibly triumphal and bizarre proviso that, of course, it shouldn’t be forgotten that the lad actually came from Oxford!! Presented like a Poirot-esque discovery of the murderer, this revelation went down like a lead balloon in my household and even the wife burst out laughing at the sheer stupidity of the man for going beyond mere hinting at the fact that every Academy member should be born on its doorstep to positively preening himself for having employed such totally irrelevant powers of detection in the first place. Applying the principle, pity the next kid to join us from as far a field as Oxford and heaven help those born in the next county, because they can never be regarded as Academy members in the truest sense in the wacky world of Wallace.

That said, he might have stopped there, when he was so far away from winning the argument as to rule himself out of every academy in the country, but no, the reference to our game against Arsenal had to be made, just to spite me and my scepticism. Naturally, there was to be no mention of the result, nor of the size of the crowd that watched, nor the one-sided nature of the contest. No, Sam’s revelation was that Chelsea had nine English players in their team and that this [somehow] proved the point that he was making about the failure of the youngsters coming through the Academy to date. You can only hazard a guess at this being an obscure reference to earlier ’foreign’ failures [compared to the ’Oxford’ success rate] but who can really fathom the inner workings of this journalist’s mind, other than to worry about his selectivity sliding into senility. To my mind, it would have been far more relevant to talk disparagingly of Arsenal having only two Englishmen in their line-up, but this was never going to happen, was it?

[Hutch]

I remember after the game looking in vain for reports. The  Mailmanaged this:

Quote

Chelsea 2 Arsenal 1: Lalkovic nets late winner as Blues see of London rivals in FA Youth Cup

Chelsea progressed to the fifth round of the FA Youth Cup on Thursday night thanks to Milan Lalkovic's last-gasp winner against Arsenal.  The Gunners went ahead after two minutes through a Billy Clifford own goal, but Slovakian striker Lalkovic equalised five minutes after the break and grabbed his second in stoppage time.

Young midfield star Josh McEachran played the full 90 minutes for Chelsea, but the evening was overshadowed by a serious injury to Arsenal defender Nico Yennaris, who was stretchered off after 24 minutes with a suspected broken leg.

This was written by Laura Williamson. Would it be sexist of me to ask who she?

According to the report on Arsenal's official site, they were denied a penalty. While admitting that Arsenal were disappointing they also claimed that "Arsenal played without their usual rhythm and tempo and Chelsea lacked the quality to create any substantial chance" uh uh.  Obviously they were watching a different game.

There's a more substantial report on the FA site who definitely weren't watching the same game as the Arsenal site's reporter:

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Both sides produced some thrilling, attacking football, as if to justify inside 90 minutes why these two famous clubs have shared the last two Youth Cup titles.

and:

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With Arsenal disposed of, Chelsea will now have high hopes of retaining the crown they lifted last season.

So why didn't the game receive wider coverage? My guess is that up editors and sub-editors up and down the country left it too late to replace the anticipated "Arsenal's Young Guns March On" headlines.

[Backbiter]

Sam Wallace is a well known Chelsea-hater. I happened to see him the other week on CTV's 'PaperView', along with Patrick Barclay and that Giancarlo guy from Gazzetta dello Sport, and he was typically appalling. Gigi Salmon was clearly exasperated by his negativity towards everything to do with the club. I can't imagine him getting too many invites in the future, but you never know - it is, after all, practically impossible to find a journo that does give us balanced coverage.

I'm not surprised to read the bollox he spouted about about our youth set-up, but thanks for highlighting it, Dorset. I look forward to his column attacking every club in the world that does not have an Academy made up of youngsters born and raised within a stone's throw of the club (I assume it would be a cheating if they were born within a stone's throw of their Academy if it happens to be in different postcode to the actual stadium).

[dkw]

"Arsenal played without their usual rhythm and tempo and Chelsea lacked the quality to create any substantial chance"

Im guessing that was actually written before the game, because surely anyone watching the match couldnt write something so factually incorrect, unless they had an agenda. The 1st half saw chances for both teams, but we were clearly the more dominant side. And the 2nd half was almost attack against defence, that report is laughable at best, imbecilic at worst.

[mad_mac]

Thanks Dorset.  It amazes me that we can be lambasted for having the gaul to sign someone from Oxford into our Academy, but Wenger is often lauded so highly for signing the "best young talent throughout Europe."

It drives me to despair, to the point that I now no longer care, to see these journo's get airtime merely because of their negativity.  We had 9 English players, and won.  Arsenal had 2 english players, and lost.  Who is the better?

The best thing we can do is go on and win this again, actions speaking louder than words.  However, I'd almost imagine people like Wallace would still say we didn't deserve to win it

[Spiller86]

No need to worry we had a lost against Fulham on the weekend, that should cheer Wallace et al. up.

We know the story by now, when we win the youth cup again they'll say we bought it, and when Josh and Wilshire become the next Lampard/Gerrard conundrum they'll be saying Josh isn't as good at something obscure, meaning he should be left out for whoever is the next Barry.

Give up on waiting for the congratulations lads, it's been six years of success for us and if our young lads can make it, there might be six more yet. That's good enough for me, if Fleet Street don't want to get on board and would prefer two metre passes between infants then that's ok, we'll just keep polishing our trophies.