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It’s nearly 10 years ago that Arsene Wenger became the first Premier League manager to field a complete team of foreign players.

Who would have thought then that Arsenal’s manager would all this time later become the standard bearer for young British players?

But signing Danny Welbeck means Arsene will have a core of his team who’ve grown up here, with Kieran Gibbs, Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey, Calum Chambers, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott.

As somebody who wants to see British football thriving that has to be good news, even if it has maybe been influenced by the rules about having home-grown players in your squad.

I think the English game is going through a bit of an evolutionary period at the moment where some of the work done to improve youth structures 10 years or so ago is beginning to produce some results, and if Arsenal are evolving too, that’s also something to welcome.

(Image: Arsenal FC)

I’ve never made any secret of my admiration for Arsene. I think he runs the Gunners in the way any side should be managed, with the long-term good of the club being the principle aim.

He’s probably the best example of the sort of manager I’m trying to be, where you develop a side and build over time to leave behind something better than you took over.

It’s easy to forget that, when he walked into ­Highbury all those years ago, the club had slid away from winning trophies and had become almost mid-table.

It is down to his work in identifying young players and bringing them through his system that they are now one of the superpowers.

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If he’s now doing that with British players, then that’s great and it will be ­interesting to see how many of them are capable of rising to the ­challenge to hit the peaks with him.

I think Welbeck’s a terrific capture. He’s mobile, he can come in from the left or right, and he can score a goal or two as well. I can see him fitting into the way Arsenal play and really starting to fulfil some of the potential we’ve seen.

Brendan Rodgers has done a lot for the cause of advancing English players, and it’s great to see others following that trend.

Arsenal were the first to field an all-foreign team – wouldn’t it be great if in a couple of years’ time they could be winning things and playing in the Champions League with an all British ­line-up?

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