Arsène Wenger has proposed a debate about the pressures young footballers are under as he is far from convinced that today’s environment for hothousing talent is the best way to prepare tomorrow’s players.

“The modern education in the youth teams today has many questions,” he said. “Do we specialise them too early? Do we give them too much coaching too early and not enough freedom? Do we isolate them too early from other sports? Should they not practise other sports at an early age and transfer their skills to our sport? Do we isolate them too early from normal social life?

“Would it not be better for them to go to a normal school and practise after school rather than at 16 give them every day only football as a professional life, knowing about the success rate?”

“We know that in France 12% make their living in football, in the first, second, third or fourth division. That means 88% are there every day living like a professional football player and not having a future.

“Another question that raises is how we manage the parents as they have a lot of expectations and put a lot of pressure on the boy. They are under pressure very early to be successful and come in with the fear of not being successful every morning.”

Wenger contrasts his own childhood, when his father would ask him how he had done at school each day, to the current experience of a young aspiring player whose father asks: “Did you practise well? What did your coach say?”

“For me, when we played football it was happiness – let’s enjoy it. I developed a passion for the game by contrasting it with boredom. Today the pressure is on the game and in the game. From very young. Today, they start at nine, 10, 11, 12. It raises questions and I do not say I have the answer. But I just think the longer you live a normal life the better.”

Wenger has always been an advocate of giving chances to young players, and was never afraid to promote those he felt had the talent and maturity to succeed. A young Thierry Henry at Monaco or a teenaged Cesc Fàbregas at Arsenal is proof of that. But he is concerned football has gone too far down the route of creating a climate that is too intense too soon.

Liverpool recently announced a salary cap for their young professionals, with a basic top wage of £40,000 per year for their 17-year-olds in a bid to create more normality at an age when all but the most outstanding players still have plenty to learn and experiences to gather. While competition for the most coveted up-and-coming players remains fierce, trying to look at the bigger picture in terms of the amount of stress and corresponding lack of normality for a youngster remains an exception rather than the rule.

Wenger believes a bigger conversation about the development of young players, and their opportunities, is needed. “The whole system has to be questioned,” he said. “They organised a system where the best players finish at the biggest clubs. But they do not always have the best chance to play at the biggest clubs.”