Ben Chorley: People have asked me a million times, why did I quit Arsenal?

11 April 2012

A decade after lifting the FA Youth Cup with Arsenal, Ben Chorley aims to help Leyton Orient achieve one of the greatest results in their history against the club he dreamed of leading to domestic and European glory.

Chorley was part of a successful young Gunners side that also contained Steve Sidwell, Jerome Thomas, Jeremie Aliadiere and Jermaine Pennant.

They claimed the Youth Cup both in 2000 and 2001 and were predicted to move as one into the first team, much as David Beckham, the Neville brothers, Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt had done at Manchester United during the mid-1990s.

Yet with little prospect of first-team selection, Chorley decided to join Wimbledon during the 2002-03 campaign, eight months before his Arsenal contract was due to expire.

Now 28, he has never managed to return to the top flight, and as he prepares to face his former club in Sunday's FA Cup fifth-round tie at Brisbane Road, he can be forgiven for wondering whether his career might have taken a different course.

"We used to eat, live and sleep Arsenal," the Orient club captain told Standard Sport. "We used to go in to the training ground on our days off just because we loved being there.

"That Arsenal youth team is probably still the main thing people come and talk to me about.

"People talked about the class of '98 and the fans were expecting us to do what the Man United players did and come and in take over the first team. The boys really fancied it and we thought we could do that.

"Perhaps it wasn't the case that the boss [Arsene Wenger] had other ideas but we didn't have the opportunity. The first team were playing so well and it was a tough time to come through but when I chose to move to Wimbledon, it was still a massive decision and there was a lot of soul searching.

"My family were saying maybe I could stick it out until the end of the season and people have said to me a million times: 'What if you had just stayed those eight months?' but I was never going to get in the team at that time, because they had Sol Campbell, Martin Keown and Kolo Toure.

"The hardest part was the change of circumstances. You wanted for nothing as a young player at Arsenal - the chef would even come and ask you what you wanted for lunch and everything was laid on at the training ground.

"Not too long afterwards, I was at Wimbledon and they went into administration. Winning those Youth Cups was still fantastic, though.

"And so many of that team have gone on to make it in the professional game, so it shows how good we were, and they're great memories."

Having experienced different levels of the professional game, Chorley understands football's benefits and drawbacks and the high value he places on loyalty has determined which of his friends have been given tickets for Sunday's match.

After competing in the glare of an FA Cup tie against a Premier League club, Orient will return to the twilight of League One, where they are in with a good chance of reaching the play-offs after losing only one of their last 20 matches.

It is the supporters who cheer him on in those matches whom Chorley has chosen to reward. His partner, Alisha, will also be in the crowd along with daughter Dolly, who is two and a half.

"I must have had 20 texts and phone calls in the five minutes after the draw was made but I knew who I wanted to come," Chorley said. "It's the people who have watched me when I'm playing Hartlepool or Swindon on a Tuesday night.

"So it's my partner and my little girl, first and foremost, and then a lot of my father's friends who have always followed my career. People will come down well before the game and have a meal together beforehand.

"That's much better than just getting to the ground an hour before kick-off, sitting behind the goal and then speaking to me after the game. The people coming to watch me are going to make a bit of a day of it."

Chairman Barry Hearn has promised the players a trip to Las Vegas if they can overcome Arsenal or force a replay at Emirates Stadium but it is the financial benefit of a cup run that has also put a smile on his face.

Hearn believes their progress has been worth about £800,000, crucial for a club used to losing close to a £1million a year, and he is hopeful of breaking even for the first time in his 16-year tenure as chairman.

Chorley, meanwhile, watched the Gunners' 2-1 win over Barcelona this week but believes Orient can also cause problems for Wenger's men.

"Trying to stop Barcelona would be mentally tougher for the Arsenal defenders but they'll definitely have a physically harder game against us," he insisted. "We know we're playing a world-class team but we also know our mindset about how to approach the game and bring it to our level.

"We have to think about the way we play, our stadium, the size of our pitch compared with the Emirates. If we play as we have in League One for the last 17-18 games, I'm sure we'll get the rewards we deserve."

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