MANY English youngsters who leave Arsenal, frustrated at the lack of first-team opportunities, bear grudges. Rather than glance in the mirror, they blame Arsène Wenger, the manager, and his apparent obsession with foreign players. As the disenchanted depart Highbury for the last time, their disillusionment is complete.

Not Steve Sidwell. The former Arsenal trainee spent 11 years at the club before moving to Reading — via loan spells with Brentford and Brighton & Hove Albion — and can empathise with the closed-shop mentality felt by those younger players at Highbury. Yet he accepts it, offers only gratitude for more than a decade of expert guidance and is getting on with his life.

When he returns to Highbury this evening, as Reading, the Coca-Cola Championship leaders, take on Arsenal in the fourth round of the Carling Cup, it will be with a sense of excitement. Metaphorical two-fingered salutes, cheap gibes about what might have been, are for others. Sidwell cannot wait.

“When I watched the draw, I just knew Arsenal were going to come out [for us],” he said. “And I’d have been disappointed if we were at home because I wanted it at Highbury. It’s the last season there and it’s going to be a big night for me. It’s not about proving any sort of point, it’s about going back, soaking up the atmosphere and just being a part of it. Hopefully, we might win, too.

“When I was at Arsenal, one day you thought you’d cracked it, the next you’d be back with the youth team. I got close to the first team, I travelled with the squad and made the bench a few times and although some people said that I was hasty in leaving, that was just me. I wanted to play football.”

Despite a six-week absence with a knee injury this season, Sidwell has indeed been playing football — neatly, concisely and with an aggressive edge in the midfield maelstrom.

He and his Reading team-mates, having shadowed Sheffield United, the previous leaders of the Championship, have now hunted them down and established a four-point lead. They are unbeaten in 23 matches in all competitions.

The days of Sidwell wondering when or even if a breakthrough would arrive at Highbury are long gone. “I was there from the age of 9 to 20,” he said. “I grew up there. It was hard to leave, but it was a football decision and one that I’m sticking by. Sure, a lot of youngsters leave feeling bitter, saying that they didn’t get a chance, that there’s too many foreign players there.

“That may be the case, but I probably got the best football education I could ever have had. I’ve never regretted it and I’d advise anyone to go there. Maybe I’m reaping the benefits now. That’s why I’ve got so much respect for Mr Wenger. A lot of people don’t realise the difficult job he’s got, to be competing with Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool week in, week out. He can’t afford to gamble by chucking in all the youngsters.”

Sidwell, 22, understands the politics, too. A possible reason why many of his peers in the teams who won the FA Youth Cup in 2000 and 2001 — Jermaine Pennant, Jerome Thomas, Jay Bothroyd, Graham Stack, Rohan Ricketts, John Halls and Ben Chorley among them — have also flown the North London nest. “It’s unbelievable that no one made it,” Sidwell said. “At most clubs, those sort of players would have had a crack. Mr Wenger always said that if you’re good enough, if you impress me, you’ll get your chance. Perhaps not that many impressed him.”

Revenge is not on the agenda. Sidwell recalls only good times at Arsenal. “I still love the club,” he said. “Mr Wenger told me that I should go out and show people what I could do. That’s what I’ve done.”

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