Arsene Wenger Quotes

Ajax has always been about homegrown players developed in a small country.

Football's about the young players, bringing youth team players through to the first team and hopefully getting the best out of them so they can go on to play for their country.

Most clubs would actually like homegrown players because they're a lot cheaper.

Arsenal have a history of bringing through youngsters, giving them opportunities, and turning them into world-class players.

We want to bring our own players through. That is what people like about Ajax.

The more players who come through the academy and make it into the first team, that's what we want. Not just for the club but for the country. If they're young English players coming through, that's fantastic. I'm happy to be part of that.

Big teams need a core of players who have their roots at their clubs, who grow with their clubs and who embody the culture. Representing it on the pitch and outside as well.

A lot of the guys who played in the 1995 final for Ajax had been there since the age of 12 or 13. Patrick Kluivert and Edgar Davids had been there from age seven or eight, so I had a lot of catching up to do.

At a club like City, you cannot forget about the kids that have come through and are still emerging from the academy. We can't forget about them and we should always keep that in mind with an eye to the future.

It's my belief that Barcelona are successful because they have a number of youth teams alongside the first team. They are where it begins.

We draft mostly high school kids and we have one of the finest, if not the finest, player development programs and coaching staffs and we teach our players the right way to play. We also have a game plan in scouting, and there are certain types of players that we look for.

We feel good about our running backs as we have them right now, and we will continue to see how they progress.

Major League Baseball has the best idea of all. Three years before they'll take a kid out of college, then they have a minor league system that they put the kids in. I'm sure that if the NBA followed the same thing, there would be a lot of kids in a minor league system that still were not good enough to play in the major NBA.

The manager sits down with me; I sit down with the board. We assess the success of the year. The manager assesses whose coming through the academy system. His job is to look at what is happening in European and world football.

We decided to go the way of trading and getting younger players.

The USA have recently done well in the Olympics and the Youth World Cup. So I think there will be some good young players available in the future, and not too expensive which is important to the club.

Italy have plenty of high-quality players. Newcomers need time to get adjusted to the set-up and the system of play. I'm very young, and although I think I have shown good quality in my international games, I realise that there are plenty of others competing for places.

It's true that at Malaga, I played every game as a starter, but here at Madrid, they give nothing away.

I had long conversations with Wenger before I joined Real, and that's how I got to know about Arsenal and the way that they like to sign talented players who can move the ball well.

It's very important that Manchester United have four or five young players every year from the youth system.

At Palace, I feel like a first-team player, and I have got the opportunity to play every week.

I want players to think: 'OK, this has happened now, what is next for me?' That's a very big target because what are academies about nowadays? Is it really just to find one or two players? But what happened to the others? I'm very, very interested in that.

Of course that's Ajax development, giving young players a chance.

Me being at Coventry, instead of a big Premier League club, probably helped me develop. You don't get put in the academy system, playing Under-18s and Under-23s.

The quality of our academy system is very high, as good as anything in the world. Around the country, lots of people in youth development are keen to get together and find a solution to that 17-to-21 age bracket and how we get those players playing.