Five Years On

The British Core (2013)

When a group of players are labeled a generation, they tend to go down one of two paths:

Success and glory

Dysfunction and underachievement

Either you go down a Manchester United’s Class of ’92 or the “La Masia” team of 2010/2011, or you’re buried in the annals of time, only for bloggers like me to reminisce about you in overtly long “what if?” pieces.

The “British core” as they were labeled were a group of young players who were set to represent the medium and long term future of Arsenal Football Club. The oldest one being then-24 year old Theo Walcott, and the youngest being a mere 19 year old Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. The picture above, arm-in-arm overlooking a banner of themselves, also arm-in-arm, donning Arsenal’s new yellow and blue kit, the last hurrah from then sponsors Nike in their final season of partnership with the Arsenal.

The picture was taken 6 months after several of these players signed long term extensions with Arsenal. Five years on, the old cliche of “contracts are only as thick as the paper they are written on” is a very apt description for that supposed momentous occasion for the club: only Aaron Ramsey and Carl Jenkinson remain, and both could potentially be out of the club in a month’s time.

With this generation all but thrown into the dustbin of history, a retrospective of what was then supposed to be representative of a new directive for Arsenal, particularly with the biggest summer in the recent history of the club currently in the works, is worth writing. Maybe not by me, but damn it if I don’t plan to at least try. So what was the summer of 2013 like for Arsenal?