Cats make London calling to Arsenal

IT’s tempting to suggest Kilkenny’s hurlers and Arsenal’s soccer players have little in common given the Cats’ phenomenal success and Arsenal’s failure to win silverware in recent years.

Add in the fact Kilkenny’s hurlers play for the love of the game and Arsenal’s cosseted stars are multimillionaires by their early 20s, and one would assume the teams are poles apart.

However both Kilkenny and Arsenal place heavy emphasis on youth development and recently a Noreside delegation visited the Gunners in London in search of ideas on how to nurture up and coming talent.