5 of the best homegrown players in Arsenal's history

Arsenal has always had a very successful academy system. Back in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, bringing through youth was very important. There were transfers, but not as many as now. Therefore for Arsenal to have won titles in 1971, 1989 and 1991, they had to have an excellent academy.

In recent years Arsenal’s academy has been somewhat less successful. But with the likes of Reiss Nelson, Eddie Nketiah and Ainsley Maitland-Niles now seeing a direct route into the first team, it could be on the rise once again.

Here are Arsenal’s five best home-grown players of all time.

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#5 David Rocastle

David Rocastle is an Arsenal legend and deserves to be, having started out at the club so early and achieving so much.

He had an abundance of talent. He was an incredible dribbler of the ball, and despite not scoring many, the ones he did score were almost always fantastic goals. But his contribution didn’t include only attacking. To play in George Graham’s system, it was required to track back, and he did that extremely well too.

He knew what it meant to play for Arsenal and how prestigious the club was. Growing up with Ian Wright, he knew him very well when the opportunity arose for Wright to join the club. He urged him to sign for the club and told him it’s ‘The Arsenal’, illustrating he knew how much it meant to play for the Gunners.

Although he was to move on to Leeds, Manchester City and Chelsea after his long spell with the Gunners, he still has a place in the memory of all Arsenal fans. Even to this day some fans still occasionally sing his chant “Rocky Rocky Rocky Rocky Rocastle” in remembrance of the midfielder who has now sadly passed away.

In eight years at the club, starting out as just a 17-year-old, he made 228 league appearances and won two league titles and a league cup. Arsenal would love a young player to come through with the talent and desire of a Rocastle today.

The famous Arsenal number seven will never be forgotten.

#4 Ashley Cole

Cole was an important part of the Arsenal Invincibles

Ashley Cole was the one Arsenal let slip through their fingers, all over £5,000 a week according to the man himself.However, before he would move on to Chelsea in 2006, he had a magnificent seven years with the Gunners.

Cole made his Premier League debut at 19 in 2000 but was not to become a first team regular until the next season when Sylvinho, Arsenal’s first-choice left-back, suffered an injury. It was Cole’s chance to shine, and he sure took advantage of the opportunity.

The Englishman made 228 first-team appearances in total for Arsenal and was extremely consistent and vital to Arsene Wenger’s way of playing. He provided great width and was permanently charging forward as Arsenal broke away at serious pace on the counter-attack in the days of the 2002 and 2004 Premier League winning Arsenal sides.

He also won three FA Cups in just a four year period with Arsenal, and his importance could be seen when he left. Gael Clichy, his understudy, would fill the void he left, but could never fully replace the Englishman.

It’s no surprise that Arsenal’s demise from the top of the league and their loss of Cole go hand in hand, as he went on to provide lots of success at his next club, Chelsea.

Despite Arsenal fans’ hatred for him, they will always know just how talented the home-grown Englishman was.

#3 Jack Wilshere

Wilshere has become an important figure in the current Arsenal team again

It may come as a surprise to some to see Jack Wilshere’s name on this list. But the Englishman, had it not been for injuries, would have easily been one of the best players in European football.

Breaking through as a 17-year-old, Wilshere showed phenomenal signs of the sort of player he’d become early on. In 2011, when he was just 19, he already made his way into the PFA Team of the Year and won the accolade of being PFA’s Young Player of the Year.

He’s fearless, a born leader, and most of all, extremely talented. Unfortunately, the impact injuries he has suffered over the years have harmed what would have been a more successful career.

But, he remains loyal to Arsenal and is finally starting to reproduce some of the magic from his early years. He may not produce statistically all the time, but the risks he takes and what he does with the ball is always important to how Arsenal play.

Wilshere has been at the club since he was nine years of age, he loves Arsenal. Hopefully, he will begin to re-pay Arsenal for all their faith in him despite the injuries now he’s completely fit once again.

#2 Ray Parlour

Parlour scored a wonderful strike in the FA Cup Final against Chelsea

'The Romford Pele' as Marc Overmars named him, Ray Parlour was a much better footballer than he received credit for.

The Englishman was very much an unsung hero during his time at the club and played a bigger part than many people thought.

For example, it’s a statistic not everybody would immediately associate with Parlour, but he actually holds the record for most appearances in the Premier League for Arsenal. After his breakthrough season in the First Division in the 1991/92 season, he played over 20 matches in every season, bar one, up until when he left in 2004.

Parlour played regularly on the right or in central midfield in the 1997/98 Premier League title victory for the club, and also won the man of the match in the FA Cup Final as Arsenal clinched the double that season.

In 2002, after Arsenal had again won the Premier League title, they had another chance at a double. The man who would lead them to another FA Cup victory again? Parlour. He won the man of the match again in the final. This time scoring a wonderful opening goal from 30 yards, as Arsenal went on to win 2-0.

This is all without mentioning Parlour played an important part in Arsenal’s invincibles season, making 25 league appearances.

He would end his time at Arsenal with three Premier League titles, four FA Cups and a League Cup. It was a quite successful career for a home-grown player.

#1 Tony Adams

Arsenal made a statue of Adams outside the Emirates to commemorate the Englishman

“Mr Arsenal” is his name, not Tony Adams.

Becoming Arsenal captain at just 21 years of age, and remaining club captain for 14 years thereafter, there is no way Adams could not feature in this list. He’s not only one of Arsenal’s greatest home-grown players of all time, he is one of the best players to be produced from an academy ever.

He may not have been technically as gifted as others, but his positioning, awareness and tackling abilities were magnificent.

In just his first full season as captain, Arsenal lifted the First Division. Then, two years later they won the title again with the Englishman being a thorn in the side and leading from the back.

Although he suffered from an addiction to alcohol for years, his rehabilitation and his game rose to a new level when Wenger arrived in 1997. Wenger stuck by him despite the problems, and Adams re-paid him for that, leading the club to two Premier League titles in 1998 and 2002.

Leading the side to those two titles, he became the only player in English football’s history to have captained a title-winning team in three different decades. It is a truly crazy statistic which only emphasises how great Adams was to achieve such longevity at the top level.

In 2002 he retired after 504 league appearances and he will always be remembered as an Arsenal great. One who came through the great Arsenal academy.