Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger believes sending youngsters out on loan is vital to their football education and for character building. The Gunners have sent 13 players away on loan this year, including Jay Simpson to West Brom.
"Someone like Jay needs to play," Wenger told the club's official website. "It is part of the education of the player to get them out on loan; to take the responsibility of playing in a first team and have to fight for a place in the dressing room.
"Not to think 'I am disappointed I am not in the Champions League' but to know what it is like to play in their championship and to assert their personality in the dressing room.
"They come back and realise that life may not have been as bad as they thought here," he said.