England’s recent youth team success in international competitions contrasts sharply with a surprising absence: Arsenal players in the U-23 squad.

This missing link raises questions about the club’s youth development pathway and how they bridge the gap between academy success and senior-level representation.

As we are in the middle of the international break, it is interesting to look at the players for the England senior and youth teams.

At youth level England U-17 and U-19 have both qualified for the Euro finals, while the U-23 are top their friendly league and unbeaten. On the senior side, England failed to qualify Team GB for the Paris Olympics and are now playing the Euro 2025 qualifiers.

Arsenal have a gap in the age group with no players in the U-23 team something that has happened on a regular basis this season, while we used to have a lot of players in that age group. Here is the full recap of the recent call-up for the Arsenal players:

U-17 qualified for the Euros in Sweden in May

• Hope McSheffrey (GK), Eva Grey, Sophie Harrison Niamh Peacock (DF), Laila Harbert, Omatara Junaid (MF), Isabella Fisher (FW).

All those players are either U-16 or U-21 Academy players except Laila Harbert who captain the England side, is currently dual signed with Watford and plays in the Championship.

U-19 qualified for the Euros in Lithuania

• Madison Earl (MF), Michelle Agyemang, Vivienne Lia (FW)

Maddy Earl has been named on the bench a couple of times for the first team and Vivienne Lia has made her first team debut this season. Michelle Agyemang has signed a professional contract and is on loan at Watford.

U-23 top of the U-23 friendly league

• None.

Senior team

• Leah Williamson, Lotte Wubben-Moy (DF), Beth Mead, Alessia Russo (FW)

Arsenal have many players in the England squad. They also have 18 other players that get regularly called up for other senior teams.

So, we have to wonder why Arsenal have players in every category except for the U-23. If we look at the players in the age range 19 to 23 in the squad, there are four of them: Teyah Goldie, Naomi Williams, Kyra Conney-Cross and Kathrine Kuhl. Two of those players are already senior internationals with Australia and Denmark, while Goldie is recovering for her second consecutive ACL and Williams is our reserves’ goalkeeper.

Because we have a 25 player squad with nearly all of them senior international already, it does not leave any real space for anyone coming up from the Academy. This U-23 age group is key for the players development and they need as much game time as possible, something that is not possible unless the player is exceptional, like Leah Williamson, who started in the first team age 17.

It does beg the question if succession planning at Arsenal involves players from the youth teams. Traditionally, we always had players coming all the way from the Academy, but the move to professionalism has increased the signing of foreign players. Nowadays, there are more than 50% foreign players in the WSL and at Arsenal there is a problem nearly every season to reach the requested eight homegrown players.

We currently have seven Williams, Wubben-Moy, Williamson, Goldie, Little, Mead, Russo.

It shows it is difficult to be able to compete at the highest level and to have a strong youth team policy. The club is certainly winning trophies at youth level and has been for years, but getting some of those players to the first team is a difficult task.