Arsenal want to match Chelsea after £17,500-a-year reveal - Stefan Borson

Arsenal want to match Chelsea’s academy success after paying significant fees for young players to attend a leading London private school.

That is the view of finance expert Stefan Borson, who exclusively told Football Insider the north London giants’ “amazing” location can help them improve their academy setup.

The Daily Mail reported on 31 October Arsenal are offering to pay £17,500-a-year fees for St John’s Senior School in Enfield in a bid to attract young talents early.

Ethan Nwaneri, who became the youngest-ever Premier League player when he appeared for Mikel Arteta’s side against Brentford in September 2022, attended the private school until he was 16.

Arsenal have ‘amazing’ location to help improve academy

Borson insisted Chelsea are likely to be the club Arsenal are looking to follow after several stars have come through their academy at Cobham.

He told Football Insider: “I don’t know the detail of each individual club’s propositions and the rules are quite tight on this stuff.

“But the bottom line is, this is a very well-trodden path. All of the clubs are competitive with each other.

“It’s not just City that Arsenal are competing against, Chelsea’s academy system has been one of the most successful around.

“Clearly, Arsenal want to be the very best they can be in that space. They have got an amazing captive geographically, they have got the whole of London. They are in an amazing spot.

“I would think all of the major clubs will be looking now at the value of a player that comes out of the academy and it changes the dynamic.

“If you have one success every two years that hits £40million of profit, you can say that’s £20million a year of money in that can offset the costs of the academy, and that’s in a worst-case scenario.

“You are going to see all of these clubs double down on it. I think Chelsea must be more of an example for Arsenal than anything.

“If you go through the game and you look at the number of players that have come through Cobham and you do the maths on what that would look like, I think that’s probably the key indicator.

“But paying for private school fees and these sorts of additional add-ons within the rules, none of this is new.

“Everyone has understood the value of an academy in multiple ways, not just in players you sell but also in players coming through.

“This is all well-trodden and it’s all factored in in terms of looking at the cost of all the additional things like school fees and other education provisions you put into the mix that you are permitted to do.”

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