Arsenal v Chelsea: Kevin McCarra writes on how the big clubs in the Premiership are preparing for the future.

Frank Arnesen had no sooner started work with Chelsea than he left the continent. While that reduced the risk of bumping into Spurs fans still wrathful over his defection, the Dane's purpose was to fly to Peru in September for the Under-17 World Championship. The consequences of the trip by Chelsea's director of development and scouting were predictable.

Possible targets were mooted and there was soon a flustered reaction in Amsterdam to claims that Chelsea would lure the Dutch pair John Goossens and Jeffrey Sarpong to London. "It's impossible for us to give all juniors a contract already," said the Ajax director Arie van Eijden.

In the end both players were reported to have chosen to stay in their club's youth programme. Nonetheless, this was a characteristic scene in contemporary football. Raids are regularly mounted to snatch gifted 16-year-olds in other countries.

Chelsea, if anything, have been slightly less rapacious than others, which could explain why Arnesen was recruited.

The club may see where they were missing out during tomorrow's game at Highbury. Cesc Fabregas was extracted by Arsenal from Barcelona in 2003 and, at 17, was dominating Manchester United in the Community Shield the following year. In such cases the compensation is comparatively small and the economic benefits have not been lost on Roman Abramovich.

Arnesen said that the billionaire owner "wants to create an organisation which can get players to Chelsea before they are so expensive". Arsenal's manager, however, was quicker to commit himself to the strategy than anyone else in England and his vivacious multinational League Cup side demonstrates the success of it.

"Arsene Wenger, with his far-sightedness, stole a march on the others," said Liam Brady, Arsenal's head of youth development and academy director, "but now you can see that the other big boys are in there as well."

It is in fact a trend that many wish to follow and Bolton Wanderers, for example, signed Ricardo Vaz Te, who had been with the Portuguese club Farense, when he was 16 in 2003.

Nonetheless, the more prominent clubs are better equipped to tempt youngsters. Manchester United, like Arsenal, dipped into the Barcelona ranks, grabbing the centre-half Gerard Pique. They also each acquired a striker from Parma when the Serie A club were in economic collapse, with the promising Giuseppe Rossi and Arturo Lupoli going, respectively, to Old Trafford and Highbury.

The ethics are highly contentious. In some countries, clubs cannot tie up footballers on full contracts until they are 18. It might be unrealistic, in a ruthless sport, to expect such a loophole to go unexploited but Brady makes the key point that the move still has to excite the youngster.

"Barcelona might have been in the comfort zone," he said. "Maybe they didn't tell the players how much they were wanted."

Wenger's scout in Spain is a former Arsenal youth player Francis Cagigao, but all major clubs are busy with intelligence-gathering. Home-grown prospects are not neglected but in England schoolboys are only allowed to train with a club if they live within 90 minutes' travelling time of it. In practice, a club like Arsenal more or less has to write off a traditional breeding ground such as the north-east. Hence the interest in the barely ripe products of club academies overseas.

"We probably have more people scouting for us abroad than we do outside the London area in this country," said Brady.

The top Premiership clubs search intensively and Manchester United now have on their staff Ron-Robert Zieler, a 16-year-old German goalkeeper whom they have been tracking since he was a boy.

Arnesen is famed, too, for worldwide contacts, even if his South American network might be of less worth if work permits remain so hard to obtain in Britain. He is under pressure to provide young, first-team players soon. "In two years, the first has to come through," Arnesen said.

He has brought in scouts of his own, including the former PSV and Aberdeen striker Hans Gillhaus, but would like to concentrate on teenagers within Britain. It is improbable, though, that he can find enough prospects in so restricted an area. It was noteworthy that two Portuguese 16-year-olds, Fabio Ferreira and Ricardo Fernandes, left Sporting Lisbon to enter Chelsea's academy this summer.

Brady does not believe that the switch of cultures makes for a high failure rate. "We've not had many bad experiences," he said. "They all seem to be career-minded and they take their education seriously. I think there can be more risk of a downside when you're buying a 22- or 23-year-old who's settled in his ways."

Wenger, meanwhile, insisted yesterday his public feud with Jose Mourinho was in the past as he revealed he would shake the Chelsea manager's hand after their clash at Highbury tomorrow.

Wenger consulted lawyers after Mourinho last month called him a "voyeur" who was obsessed with Chelsea, but decided against taking any legal action.

Asked if he would shake hands with Mourinho, he insisted: "I will always do that. I feel the matter is in the past and what is important is that everyone sees a good football game and, for me, it's important that Arsenal beat Chelsea.

"This game is of massive importance. For the whole season, not just for the Premiership," he acknowledged.

It is a match which Arsenal simply cannot afford to lose. But even if a handshake follows the final whistle, will Wenger be sending Mourinho a Christmas card? He smiled as he replied: "That is an English custom!"

For all of his efforts to defuse tensions, it would seem that not all wounds are healed quite that easily.

Highbury, Sunday, 4.0, On TV: Sky Sports 1