To Growler in Sydeny, Arsenal's youth policy has always been a supplement to the club's success.

The impressive dismantling of Newcastle a fortnight ago, their carling cup run last year which included victories over Liverpool and a full strength Spurs, as well as a close final with Chelsea indicate that arsenals youth system works for them.

last year they reached the FA youth cup semi final, 38,000 turned up to watch 11 englishman play alongside Merida and co. and this continues... January 07 - they beat liverpool 6-3, and last week chelsea 1-0.

players under the age of 16 cannot be tied down to pre contract agreements, they dont even have jobs! they belong to academy's, not teams.

call it poaching if you like, but the fact is that arsenal have produced Cashley Cole, Upson, Sidwell, Bentley, Jerome Thomas, John Halls, Jermaine Pennant (all clearly not poached from Barca)

here is a head up for kieran gibbs, home grown and about to give you something to growl about....

Will Page, Brisbane, Australia

barcelona is the one to suffer because of this decision.let's look it this way. young players will think twice in future to join barcelona academy since they will be restricted from joining other clubs when offer come calling because of this ruling. it's barcelona loss nonetheless

besor, kuala lumpur, malaysia

Growler and Dan, your petty jealousy is showing. Anyone who knows about Arsenal knows they have a great youth development system that channels plenty of english players into the big leagues, and is a sought after path by promising juniors from all over the world. The agents come to Arsenal, because they know Wenger can spot and develop talented youngsters better than anyone in the world.

Barca cracked it because the kid wanted to go to a club where he would get a chance to play top flight in the next few years. Not a club that pays way over the odds for players who have already given their best (TH anyone?)

Tom, Melbourne, Australia

I know there are flights to London from Sydney and Las Vegas but I wonder whether Growler and Dan have ever been to the Arsenal junior training ground at Walthamstow. Completely seperate from the main training centre it has four full pitches, and a full indoor pitch. It comes under the jurisdiction of Liam Brady, one of the greatest midfielders of all time.
To suggest Arsenal don't have a junior programme is laughable. The kids start at the age of eight and sign agreements -- not contracts -- for two years until they become old enough to turn pro. The Premier League is littered with products of the system, Sidwell at Chelsea; Harper at Reading, Bentley at Blackburn; Larsson and Muamba at Birmingham and Stokes at Sunderland being just some of them. And, yes, most are English.
The fact that Arsene Wenger is clever enough to spot even better foreign talent at an extremely young age, only proves how good he is. Charlatan? Look under gaming tables, Dan -
you'll find a few there.

Robert Ingham, Chesterfield, Va, USA

The only thing that matters should be whether or not he signed a contract. If it's illegal in Spain to sign a contract before you're 16 then it certainly seems dumb that a club can demand you sign a "pre" contract before you're 16. Either way, the club can invite a player into their system and then kick them to the curb whenever they feel like it, so I think it's horrible precedent to award Barca anything at all, much less 'future value.' Football players are slaves or serfs.

bobc, austin, usa

Growler is 100% correct. Arsene is seen as a genius for spotting young talent, but it seems to me he mostly steals youth players who have already been discovered. What a charlatan.

Dan, Las Vegas, USA

Get your figures right. Cesc cost £2.25m in the end after arbitration.

Neal, Reading, UK

its still a steal. players 'poached' under 18 should have automatic built in payouts, based on number of games for first team, caps, and potential value based on contract or transfer value.

Maybe that will stop the clubs stealing from other clubs who do actually put the effort into a youth team, unlike arsenal

Growler, Sydney,