Arsenal star tipped to be ‘big player’ by Arsene Wenger quit football to become gardener

A promising former Arsenal youngster was predicted to become a Gunners star but found his calling elsewhere

Henri Lansbury had no regrets about leaving Arsenal, even before launching his successful grass fertiliser venture.

Having joined Arsenal’s academy at the age of nine in 1999, Lansbury was part of the Hale End generation that boasted talents such as Jack Wilshere, Luke Ayling and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas.

The midfielder made his first-team debut in 2007 at just 17 and after loan stints at Scunthorpe United and Watford, he made his Premier League bow in 2010. Arsene Wenger, the manager at the time, had high hopes for Lansbury, stating in 2010: "He will be a big player for me.

"He is at the moment having a very interesting experience [at Watford] that we judge to be very successful. He will come back at the end of the season and practice with the first team in the next pre-season. Then we will assess the situation with him together."

However, Lansbury was unable to secure a regular spot in Arsenal's star-studded midfield and was subsequently loaned out to Norwich City. His final appearance for the Gunners came during the infamous 8-2 defeat at Old Trafford in 2011, where he featured as a late substitute, concluding his 13-year stint with the club.

Following a successful season-long loan spell at West Ham, where he played an important role in their promotion, Lansbury made the permanent switch to Nottingham Forest in 2012 for £1million. His Arsenal career yielded just eight appearances and one goal but the midfielder would go on to become a key player at the City Ground until 2017.

Reflecting on his departure from the Emirates Stadium in 2015, the former England U21 international revealed the reasoning behind his difficult decision to leave the club he'd supported since childhood.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Lansbury explained:"At the time, I spoke to Arsene and he said I was not guaranteed to play every week, which you can understand being at Arsenal as it is a top club and probably one of the best in the world. They have the best players and being a young player there, it is tough to come through.

"If I am not playing, I am not the type of person that wants to sit around and play reserve games. I want to be involved and playing first-team football every week. I think the main thing for a young player is to go out and play as many first-team games as you can.

"Having gone out on loan and played first-team football, I just needed to move permanently and regularly play first-team football. I couldn't have sat there and waited about. But you see some of the boys that have done that, Francis Coquelin for example. I was with him and we were in the same boat. He's waited about, got his chance and he's taken it very well."

Lansbury enjoyed a respectable career across the Premier League and Championship, turning out for Aston Villa, Bristol City and Luton Town before hanging up his boots aged 32 in 2023. He was part of the Luton side that clinched promotion to the Premier League, though his final season was severely hampered by injury.

That was not as heart-breaking as it might have been, however, thanks to Lansbury’s new hobby and side-hustle which he had already been pursuing in the background. During lockdown, Lansbury developed a new love for gardening and ended up finding a new organic alternative to toxic chemical fertilisers, so his children could still play on his lawn immediately after application.

This newfound passion led to the creation of Grass Gains, a successful business that has expanded beyond residential lawns to service professional football pitches at clubs including Fulham, Monaco and Genk.

The company's products are now stocked in retailers such as Homebase, with the self-proclaimed 'Lawn Lad' enjoying a full circle moment as he reportedly even tended to the pitches he used to rip up as a youngster at Arsenal’s Hale End academy.

As his former clubs Arsenal and Nottingham Forest prepare to meet at the City Ground on Saturday afternoon, Lansbury harbours ambitions of one day working on the Emirates Stadium turf. For the time being, though, he's happy supporting grassroots football.

He previously said: "We’re going in the right direction, a few local clubs have asked for it and we’ve put it down on their pitches as well.

"I want to give back to the local clubs really, I want them to have a nice pitch to play on, there’s nothing better than a kid running on a pitch with stripes on it and that’s what it does, it helps stripe it off."