It was only 10 years ago that Kieran Gibbs’ Arsenal Under-18s were knocked out of the FA Youth Cup semi-finals by a Manchester United side spearheaded by Danny Welbeck.
Both players have since established themselves as big names in senior football and team-mates for the England national team, but what has changed in the life of an academy player during that time?
We asked Welbeck:
Things are different now with social media, but how would it be different if you were 10 years younger?
Obviously the social media has come into play now. It’s a massive thing and back then, 10 years ago, it wasn’t. There was none of that really flying around. So it’s different, you can see it as a distraction or you can see it as a way of building yourself as a person and as a player. I think as life moves on there’s different things that come into play and I think you’ve got to try and take it in a positive way and better yourself as a person and as a player.
There’s the likes of Chris Willock and others here, do you ever have a chat with them and speak about your career?
Yeah, obviously I took part in the game against Blackburn not too long ago for the under-23s and you see the boys in and around the training ground. I got a full on interview, worse than this one, the other day at the hotel before the game where they all wanted to ask me a few questions! But I’m happy to pass on any sort of experience that I’ve been through with them just to give them the sort of knowledge that they want to hear. Some things they might not want to hear, but you still tell them. You’ve got to give them the truth and hope that they can take it in a positive way and make sure that they better themselves.
So what do they ask for your advice on?
A lot of stuff they ask you is to do with stuff that you’ve done in your career. Like when did you make your first team debut, how was it, what were the older players like, when you were going into first team training for the first time how did you handle it? All that sort of stuff. A lot of it is basic. Well, it’s basic for me because I’ve been through it. But for them, it’s something new and they want to go and experience the same thing. At the end of the day we’ve all got the same goal. We all want to be playing in the first team and if I can help them in any little tiny way, I’m willing to do that. In training you want to win every single day. Some of them might see getting a little nutmeg as ‘Oh yeah, I megged someone today!’ but that’s not the be all and end all. At the end of the day it’s all about winning and if you can drill that into their mentality early on that’ll take them a lot further.
More quizzes coming soon!
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