In an excellent and candid interview with the Irish Examiner’s Tony Leen, Liam Brady has bemoaned the lack of intelligence shown by certain young players who have ended up scuppering their Arsenal careers.
Some of them built up social media followings that far outweighed their contributions on the pitch, and despite advice from Brady and his staff, failed to concentrate properly on the football, to their obvious detriment.
Asked by Leen about the likes of Pennant, Frimpong and others, tipped for big things, Brady said, “Jermaine did very well to get as far as he has from the background he came from, he did bloody well.
“Other lads are too headstrong. They can’t be told. Social media, unacceptable behaviour — these are all problems of modern society. Arsene won’t put up with that and I tell the young lads if their behaviour is, in any way, erratic or unreliable, either they change their ways or change their club.
“Unfortunately, there’s a lot don’t have the intelligence to hear what people are telling them.”
Although Brady himself doesn’t mention Frimpong specifically, he’s a clear example of young man whose fame was based more on his Twitter antics than what he could do with this feet. And as of this moment, with the new season set to start, he’s without a club. Food for thought.
Interestingly, the former Arsenal and Juventus star talks about giving the same advice to Wojciech Szczesny, a player he brought to the club as a teenager.
“I was instrumental is getting Szczesny from Poland and I’ve said to him on occasions, ‘I played with two of the best keepers of all time, Pat Jennings and Dino Zoff, and they never said a word’.
“They never wanted to say anything in the media. All they wanted to do was keep their goal intact and their defence in shape. And they played their careers at the very highest level.
“Listen to what I’m saying. Wojciech could be one of the best, because in goalkeeping terms he is very young.”
Szczesny too had something of a Twitter following, but quit the social media platform and subsequently cemented his place as the club’s number one goalkeeper. One who listens to good advice, obviously (even if he does like a bit of Sp*rs baiting from time to time on his Facebook page).
The rest of the interview is an absolute must-read into the world of the Arsenal youth set-up and the challenges faced by the club and young players alike.
I think this applies to other careers too, and affects many people’s lives, including me. It is difficult to get rid of all these encumbrances once you’re trapped, but once you’re out, it usually spurs you on to work much harder.
“Spurs you on….”.
Watch your language.
Everyone wanted to play like Chippy when I was a lad except me…I was goalie and wanted to be as brave
as Bob Wilson
Never say anything “spurs” you on. Use another word.
Football is a sport where the shelf life is very little. So I would say to all players practice hard and after retitement pool all your hard earned money and enjoy because at mid 30s some of us get our careers properly set. Just about. Speaking as a young doctor
I am baffled how this gets so many thumbs down??
Disagree. After their football retirement, they should still continue working and living as proper productive contributors to society. Sure beats being a washed up, alcoholic, bankrupt, has been.
Liam Brady didn’t know who Ivan Rakitic was until the opening game of the world cup? Err…
he’s not a footballers database . To know of Rakitic you must someone who watches Sevilla matches and Croatia matches ,unless he’s scouting him he has no reason to watch those matches.
But surely we have a scout in Spain who keeps an eye on La liga and can see the outstanding players. Its not Liams fault but there seems something lacking in our scouting if Liam wasn’t made aware of him before the world cup.
correct me if i’m wrong but when Liam was at the club i’d imagine he was mainly concerned with youth scouting wasn’t he seeing that he was head of youth development? so I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t know. Besides, i’m sure plenty of people involved with the club at first team level, including Wenger, obviously knew about him. Much ado about nothing
It’s a cracking interview and Chippy is such a legend. My first proper football hero as a kid in the ’70s, he was. His cup final run down the left, socks round his ankles, burning up whatever was left in the tank, is burned into my mind every bit as clearly as Saint Michael’s charge through the middle 10 years later. As is the vicious 20 yard curler into the net at WHL. Beautiful. Was the first heartbreak when he was sold to Juventus. I hope we get to see Chippy at the Grove often, hopefully being interviewed at half… Read more »
As a kid growing up in N1 in the 70’s, there were only two players we were all trying to be: Charlie George, obviously. And Brady. Just thinking about his lovely languid style and amazing left foot has brought a smile to my face.
Did the legends tour with Charlie on Friday and he STILL brought a smile to my face! Well worth the money for any old Gooners!
David Price was a better player than Brady – that Damned Tery Neil was just jealous of the blond bomshell.
Ha ! Ha !
I remember Price-y scoring a cracker against Spurs in a 2 – 0 win. He bulleted it in at the Clock End where I was standing. Lovely sunny day too.
Memories are made of that.
hahahaha and steve gatting was better than both of them put together, but suffered because of his chubster brother playing for england
haha
Oh come on people, fat gooner is joking! (i hope).
Glad we didnt get Lehman young then, god knows what that nutter would’ve done if he got told to calm down
Other quotes I liked: ‘he’s good Arsene, but he’s a bit troublesome’. And he says, ‘Liam, all the best players are troublesome’.” “Wojciech could be one of the best, because in goalkeeping terms he is very young” “Luke Freeman? Gillingham needed a bit of money, Arsenal came in and said we’ll have a bit of a gamble on this lad and the press went ‘Arsenal sign young superstar from Gillingham’. ” “Chelsea probably have the best young players in England at the moment, but it’s all down to money … if you are a parent, you wouldn’t be letting your… Read more »
In all Fairness, Frimpong was more popular on Twitter than he was on the field. He’s a perfect example And little wonder He’s been Denched from The Arsenal.
Great Interview ! One of my favourite Arsenal players of all time. Always will be.
Great interview with Brady. My footballing hero as a kid . I won’t go into his leaving. It still hurts !!
A very insightful read.
Wow, and we have people who slate Arsene for doing nothing.. That man lives and breathes football.. And to see all the legends of the club respect him tells you about the personality of the man..
Probably the best insight into Arsenal and its continuing drive for success ever to hit the press, Liam Brady just legend.
What a breath of fresh air! Thanks Liam.
Hopefully the whole world listens.
PS, Sczc, you’re a legend.
An example of what fucking that shit off can do for you.
Fucking excellent article Andrew, thanks for the pointer. Chippie is my favourite player ever to wear the Red and White.
It is such a shame some of these lads can’t listen and learn from older, wiser heads and none wiser than Liam.
I loved him so much I named my eldest after him.
Great name Chippie is! Well done!
Great read. It’s interesting to get an insight into how things work at a club, the decision-making, the actual going-ons behind the scene. Youth teams and players are difficult to manage, these kids are still in their development stage, if you let them go, there’s always a chance that their behaviour, or physique or attitude might still change and make the breakthrough at another club. It’s a thankless job…. but immensely satisfying when someone like Ashley Cole comes through
Very interesting interview! The quote that stuck out for me was: “I’ve spoken to Arsene about the most gifted players and I say ‘he’s good Arsene, but he’s a bit troublesome’. And he says, ‘Liam, all the best players are troublesome’.” This got me thinking, if Arsene thinks this… what about Henry, Pires, Kanu, Vieira, Bergkamp, Cesc, Ramsey, Ozil?… they never strike me as being anything other than the exact opposite of trouble… they seem model professionals, bordering on boring in their dedication to the game. Our best youth prospects Gnabry, Zelalem etc never look like they would be any… Read more »
Wenger was referring to TGSTEL, clearly
Ashley Cole, Samir Nasri, Robin van Persie and Emmanuel Adebayor perhaps.
Yes they were scumbags when they engineered moves. But as players at the club, I never thought of them as troublesome to Wenger… I assumed he was referring to the likes of Balotelli who seem like permanent headaches despite their apparent talent.
Not to be that guy, I love Liam Brady and everything he has done. But Arsenal’s youth program was failing so much recently (remember the huge number of players let go of last season?) that in 2012 we were told to shape up or lose Category 1 status as an academy. Don’t blame me, read the new book “Arsene and Arsenal” by Kevin Witcher and Alex Fynn. I agree with 7amkickoff that Arsenal are more of a “finishing school” where top talents can come and become top class players rather than an academy where kids are raised from 8-19 and… Read more »
You have to remember though that prior to 2011 the academy system only allowed you to recruit players within 90 minutes of your location. Being that London has a high number of EPL and lower league teams made the competition for young talent very difficult, especially compared to teams like Man United who at the time had no competition since City were useless. Thankfully that got abolished in 2011 so hopefully there will be improvements over the next few years. The flip side being though that it will harm lower league teams since EPL teams can now recruit across the… Read more »