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Arsene Wenger has warned against his Arsenal players dropping down from the senior England team to play for the Under-21s at next summer European Championships.
Gareth Southgate’s side confirmed their place at the tournament in the Czech Republic on Tuesday night with a 4-2 aggregate win over Croatia.
Both Southgate and England boss Roy Hodgson have expressed an interest in several eligible senior players gaining valuable competition experience by representing the Under-21s.
The Gunners had five players involved in England’s recent double-header against San Marino and Estonia with Jack Wilshere, Calum Chambers, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Danny Welbeck all meeting the age criteria to play for the Under-21s.
Any player born on or after 1 January 1992 is able to participate because they were aged 21 or under when qualification began but Wenger believes players should not be demoted once breaking through at senior level.
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“My thinking about that is once a guy has moved up to the full national team and you put him down [to the under-21’s] he is never good,” said Wenger. “Apart from the fact on the selfish front for us, when the guy has played 50 games it is better he has a good rest during the summer. But most of the time, when they move down, they are not completely at their quality.”
Wenger revealed that Laurent Koscielny will miss Saturday’s Premier League game against Hull along with Aaron Ramsey, who begins full training on Monday following a hamstring problem. Mikel Arteta’s calf injury has improved and he is in the squad along with Danny Welbeck and Tomas Rosicky.
