Criticism
The ground has attracted criticism from a number of groups. Local residents have criticised it on two occasions. In October 2001 it was reported at a parish council meeting that Arsenal players had not been involved with local initiatives, despite claiming during its planning phase that the ground would allow the club to develop links with the local community. Shenley Primary School reportedly failed to receive any visits from players despite repeated requests. The club responded by pointing to initiatives by its Ladies team to organise competitions at local grounds.
In 2005 a plan to develop new buildings and road links to the site was challenged by local residents who believed that it would lead to increased traffic and noise pollution in the area.
In May 2006 the Daily Telegraph newspaper criticised Arsenal's failure to develop young English players following a UEFA Champions League match in which they did not use a single English player. The paper reported that youth team opportunities was one of the main reasons for the Shenley ground receiving planning permission, citing a statement by the club that: "The Bell Lane site is within the Arsenal 'catchment area' and the club already has a very active youth policy in the area. In particular, the club currently works closely with 12 local clubs which would be maintained and enhanced if the Bell Lane proposal were to go ahead."
Read more about this topic: Shenley Training Centre
Famous quotes containing the word criticism:
“It is ... pathetic to observe the complete lack of imagination on the part of certain employers and men and women of the upper-income levels, equally devoid of experience, equally glib with their criticism ... directed against workers, labor leaders, and other villains and personal devils who are the objects of their dart-throwing. Who doesn’t know the wealthy woman who fulminates against the “idle” workers who just won’t get out and hunt jobs?”
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“It is from the womb of art that criticism was born.”
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867)
“The critic lives at second hand. He writes about. The poem, the novel, or the play must be given to him; criticism exists by the grace of other men’s genius. By virtue of style, criticism can itself become literature. But usually this occurs only when the writer is acting as critic of his own work or as outrider to his own poetics, when the criticism of Coleridge is work in progress or that of T.S. Eliot propaganda.”
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