Marcelo Flores has played for Mexico against Chile. Charlie Patino is the best teenager unearthed in decades, according to one seasoned scout. Salah-Eddine Oulad M’Hand is a Holland youth international tearing it up so much that he was named on the bench for a League Cup semi-final.
All of the above are Arsenal players; proof that the club’s global and local scouting networks are in very good order.
And proof, more pertinently, that the club were perfectly capable of fielding a squad of 14 for last weekend’s north London derby, just as they are to face Liverpool in the Carabao Cup semi-final second leg on Thursday.