Michel Platini and Sepp Blatter have long espoused the view that youngsters moving to another country to serve their footballing apprenticeship is not the right way for the future of the game. At varying times, the clubs are called child traffickers, kidnappers or accused of using slave labour. Hardy rhetoric that damages their arguments rather than enhancing them.

Arsenal are regularly held up as an example of this by FIFA and UEFA. The media like to herald the club as playing football the right way but criticise the path followed to get there, ignoring the personal animosities of Blatter and Platini towards the English, the EPL and Wenger himself.

This week, the head of the KNVB, the Dutch Football Federation, announced that he was seeking ‘clarification‘ about a football school which is being created by Arsenal as part of their global network. According to Goal.com, the Dutch are concerned that they will lose their brightest talents to Arsenal. There is some validity to their concerns yet it is another case of unashamed hypocrisy by a national association.

Arsenal are not pioneers of this strategy by any stretch of the imagination. Many Spanish and Italian teams have stripped the vines in South America, plucking those whom they consider worthy to learn their crafts in Youth Academy’s in former colonial powers. The French and Portuguese do so in Africa, the Dutch themselves have trodden a similar path. Indeed, Ajax took the process further than any other club in South Africa yet none of these are beaten with the same stick as Arsenal.

The nature of football is such that it will forever be a global sport in terms of allegiances on and off the pitch. UEFA may support the promotion of native talent through rule changes but there are holes so wide in the legislation that they propose, rather than promoting the pursuance of natives, they encourage younger players to move abroad if the price is right.

The question is whether there is anything inherently wrong in the policies of clubs or not. For me, the overriding principle is to get the best squad at Arsenal. That is not necessarily the best players in terms of talent but those whose abilities complement others and have a strong team ethic. If they are eleven Englishment so be it. If not, a policy of not being bothered by their passport is perfectly acceptable. Let us not kid ourselves, Arsenal are by no means the only team doing this.

To the chagrin of a section of support and to the media at large, the current Arsenal team does not provide a substantial core of the England squad. That says more of the technical abilities of English players who are unable or unavailable to fulfil Wenger’s dream. The youth system has plenty of English lads in it with some of the brightest hopes for the club eligible for the national team. That is before you address those who have passed through the Academy to forge careers elsewhere.

It is the fundamental issue which divides football and has done so in the past: club v country. Neither has particular regard for the other at administrative level hence the failure to resolve the arguments. ’til Tomorrow.