Wenger: English Players More Likely to Remain Loyal to Arsenal

Arsene Wenger has spoken of his delight that there is a core of English players who have forced their way into the Arsenal first team this season.

Carl Jenkinson recently became the fifth Arsenal player to become an England international as he followed in the footsteps of Theo Walcott, Jack Wilshere, Kieran Gibbs and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

The young right-back excelled in the early stages of the season when he deputised for the injured Bacary Sagna, while his four England colleagues are all considered valuable members of the Arsenal first team.

Wenger believes that these players are more likely to show some loyalty to the club, despite Walcott currently being linked with a move away from Arsenal as he enters the final six months of his contract.

"It is not by coincidence, it is down to the work that we have done that we have more good English players," Wenger told the official Arsenal website.

"We look first at quality. If the quality is local, it is of course even better because it gives you more guarantee of stability because the players who are English who play for Arsenal are more likely to stay for a longer term than foreign players.

"But we look first at quality, that is the most important thing."

Wenger has been forced to watch a number of his most valuable players leave in recent seasons as the likes of Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri, Gael Clichy, Alex Song and Robin van Persie have gone looking for success away from north London.

The French manager is desperate for this not to happen with his England international, in particular the returning Wilshere who has taken on an even more prominent role at the club this season.

"He has always been very committed to this club and I hope he will show that," added Wenger. "There is only one way to show it and that is to commit your long-term future to the Club.

"He has two-and-a-half years left - that's quite a long time. We have built a team [where] we have a lot of young English players, or British players, like Gibbs, Chamberlain, Wilshere. We still have the case of Walcott, Aaron Ramsey. You want them all on long-term contracts."