January 2009 could prove to be the most important month of Arsène Wenger’s managerial career. The Frenchman knows that the dealings done during the winter transfer window will shape Arsenal’s season, and ultimately, his own reputation among the fans.
Whatever your stance this season, things have not been good enough, and the boss knows it. But spending could in fact do more damage that it will good – in the longer term.
One of the Gunners key philosophy’s is that the club is committed to developing youth talent. Whether that is buying players from abroad and integrate them into the first team, or signing Under 16’s and bringing them through the Academy.
Why would kids chose to give up everything they’ve ever know to move hundreds, often thousands of miles away? because they trust Wenger and Arsenal to look after them.
Let’s take the Invincibles of 2003/2004 for example. Of the starting XI, 5 of the usual line up were signed as young players, and transformed into world beaters in a matter of years. Youth has a strong tradition at Arsenal.
This January, the fans are desperate for huge amounts of money to thrown at the team to rescue the poor state the club is in at the moment. But whilst it appears adopting a Football Manager type attitude to solving matters is easy, longer term, it could be damaging.
The signing of 26-27-28 year old experienced players means that whatever their form, they are almost first choice. They take the place of the promising youngsters, and before you know it, talented players who just need games, are pushed further down the rankings and end up leaving.
Many are in favour of signing Andrei Arshavin. The Russian midfielder who can play as a striker or a winger. Should he arrive, Carlos Vela and Nicklas Bendtner and pushed further down the ranks, and as hungry young prospects, they won’t hang around forever.
Signing the odd experienced players is acceptable, but doing it on a regular basis will damage the confidence of young players that the club has built its self upon. Should the mentality continue, and should it be put into practice, then quite simply wonder-kids will go elsewhere.
Things are far from what we expected this campaign, but the future is bright, and will be bright, but we need patience.
Article By – J.Sanderson
We ain’t a flippin Nursery or a creche for parent’s who love shopping. We are a elite football club that has fans who are hungry to achieve success. These youngsters are doing nothing for us, we are becoming a joke. We need to be world beaters and in order to do that we need to buy more ready made stars. Remember the Bergkamps, Pires’s, Campbell’s? We need to by more of those!
Carlos Vela I understand, he seems ready. Nicklas Bendtner? Gimme a friggin break. He couldn’t fire a blank! Hes a waste of space.
the future may be bright, but we can’t use that as an excuse to finish below 4th – given the current economic climate…
one of the best things yovue written in my opinion jay!
I have to say I agree 100% too. This season is to badly destroyed to be salvaged by a few january signings.
Dont forget we also got players like Rosicky and Walcott coming back too!
what would you rather have? the team finishing 5th with some players a little happier or finishing higher in the table with one or two temporarily unhappy players. if they were good enough, they would be playing.
we NEED an experienced player or two.
Thats true JS but with Rosicky injured all the time Arshavin may just be taking Rosicky’s place in the team meaning slots are still open for youngsters. Also its undenyable that a DM is needed as Denilson isnt a DM, Song isnt playing well there and Diaby doesnt want to play there. I would love all these youngsters to come through but a club of our size must qualify for champs league football. I see where ur comin from though i hope we dont go mad signing players but a DM is definately needed.
U hit the nail
I fully appreciate all that you are saying but we are so short of experienced players that the youngsters do not have anyone to confide in or aspire to. The introduction of 2 or 3 older, more experienced quality platers will in the long run help the undoubtedly talented young players by being there for them to lean on and take the burden of expectancy off their young shoulders.
We need to win trophies now and not wait till some of our young players are ready for the first team, because we do not have enough experience in our starting XI, also if the young players are good enough they will get in ahead of the older players anyway.
Smart post. But i still think that signing arshavin would be good he the short and long term. It would give players like vela,wilshere and barazite (when he comes back) the chance to learn from and work with a player at the top of hes game. Which could only help them improve in the long term.
Nice to hear an alternative viewpoint, sensibly argued. That said, I suspect 99.9% of Arsenal fans would take Arshavin in place of Bendtner. Nonetheless, interesting thoughts.
I quite liked the thought of Arsene interrogating our young recruits….but perhaps you should amend to integrating!!
IDK about bendtner leaving he is shit
i hope we sign arshavin and sell bendtner to milan or bayern
Youth development, planning for the future? YES. But a team of Arsenal’s stature has to deliver on the pitch right here, right now. Balance is the key. Current results cannot be sacrificed because of some long term, unproven vision. Balance. And I think Arsene Wenger has lost the balance. We have a future, but we lost out present.
I agree with the majority of what you are saying, it is a refreshingly well informed point of view with perspective, unlike so many other ‘Arsenal’ websites.
However, is too much youth a good thing? For example when Cesc and Flamini broke through, there was Vieira, Edu and Gilberto still at the club. When Anelka, Henry and Cashley and Toure broke through, there were still the likes of Seaman, Adams, Keown, Bergkamp, Parlour etc.
Where is the experienced equivalents in this squad? Only Gallas and Toure, Silvestre (but he is new to the sqaud and as a former Manchester United player, soiled). Clichy maybe. I think that is the biggest problem – if you throw in Vela and Bendtner with Song and Denilson, with Wilshere and Ramsey, it is too much and results, short term, and confidence long term, will suffer.
It’s important to get the balance right, both in terms of quality vs potential and experience vs youth, as things stand there is not enough quality or experience. I don’t subscribe to the opinion that quality young players will not come through if there are older or better players currently ahead of them, ultimately, if they are good enough they’ll come through, remember Cesc broke into the Arsenal midfield at 16/17 when there were some fantastic players already established.
Patience is great, but if we wait too long and continue to under-achieve, then the quality young players will leave anyway to get their Champions league football and trophies elsewhere.
Vela should be pushed ahead of bendtner, its song who i wont mind being pushed down to back-up level with a world class midfield detroyer brought in to look after cesc and get the team attacking from higher up the pitch. Arshavin could still be purchased and rotated with nasri/cesc/walcott. Look at Utd + Chelsea – they have world class bench warmers happy to be brought in when necassary so why wont an 18yr old do this happily? As for the back, we only need a quality defender if Gallas or Kolo leave. Chiellini will do me fine.
Off the pitch, we need to get stability back in the boardroom, and only time can provide that once the new guy has bedded in.
It can’t be argued that we don’t need at least a new central midfielder or winger, preferably both. Vela and Bendtner are both played more as strikers rather than Arshavin who’s an attacking midfielder and the fact of the matter is that the youngsters aren’t performing, or in most cases, not playing. If Wenger doesn’t want to play them regularly at such a young age (understandable) then you can’t sit back and do nothing. You can’t play Eboué in centre midfield because he’s not a central midfielder, and you can’t rely on four players relatively new to the Premier League (Denilson, Song, Diaby & Ramsey) to get you a Champions League spot because that’s putting too much pressure on them.
If we bought Arshavin, then he could play on the wing instead of Denilson/Diaby (which we’ve been seeing far too often) and if necessary in the centre as well. Wenger will probably sell him in three years and by that time someone like Ramsey will be expected to be playing more regularly as well.
Oh and I think you should try to change your title, it isn’t exactly what we should be expecting from the youngsters.
Like the website but have to disagree with the philosophy in your post today. Older players with pedigree make young pups hungry and even a bit envious, whilst showing them traits such as humility and how to earn rewards for effort. The only example at Arsenal that defies the rule, in my recollection, is what the signing of Ian Wright did to dent a prolific Kevin Campbell’s emergence. Generally speaking, new signings motivate everyone connected with a club.
No ones been signed yet and lets be honest, if there was a capable alternative i’m fairly sure they would’ve been thrown in already. And signing an experienced player will add competition to those players that seem to expect a starting place in the 1st team. If someone like Arshavin is signed, just think what a player like Wiltshere can learn from him until he is ready to start games.
I do agree with you that if you constantly buy experienced players than you will lose all your young players. But with that being said, who are young players going to learn from? 5 of the usual line up were signed as young players, but when they were signed there were more experienced players there to help them along. Right now, the only experienced players we have for the young guns to learn from are William Gallas, Kolo Toure, and Manuel Almunia. And that is why Djourou has gotten so much better. But in the middle of the field, the only player that Song, Diaby, Denilison, Ramsey and Wilshire can learn from is Fabregas. Fabregas is a kid in his own right, and it’s not fair to not only expect him to learn but to also teach. And for the striker, Vela and Bendtner has to learn from RVP and Adebayor. Both players who don;t play well together. Both are for the glory and not strictly for the team. And both are in there early 20s. they are “experienced” but not the experience that age comes with. Adebayor learned a lot playing with Henry, but once Henry left, so did Adebayor learning anything. overall i think that the 3 experienced players that i hope Wenger brings is good for the squad. And for the young guns, it should be excited because day in and day out they will learn from the best. And also, if they are not patient, then let them go and see if their careers pan out any better than Bentley, Pennant, Hoyte among others.
integrate not interrogate
a blend of players at their peak and young hungry bloods works, a load of kids who are paid too much and have lost their fight does not.
i really believe of lot of the current team are going to be great players but to have the third highest wage bill is unbelievable?!?!
Hi J, please change ‘interrogating them’ to integrate them
get rid of bendtner, i do still believe that he will be a good player but his attitude, work rate and end product r non existant at the moment!! bring in someone with proven quality, experience and a will to win, combine this with the quality that we have already seen from youngsters such as ramsey, vela n wilshire n instead of pushing them down the ladder it will enable wenger more opportunities to play them. It is hardest for a manager to throw young players into a team struggling for form n under pressure, bring in 1 or 2 players that can improve us drasticaly then we can get rid of the dead weight in the side (eboue, silvestre, bendtner) and the youngster can be given a run out in a confident team where the pressure on them isnt so substantial. This will be much more beneficial for there development, do you not agree?
We cant afford to drop out the champions league places and we have to face the fact that only a few of these kids will make it, if they are good enough they will rise to the top, no matter what players are in front of them.
Look at Barca, Krkic and Messi along with quite a few talented youngsters have broken, or are breaking into the first team there.
They still went out and brought Henry..
We are in desperate need of a DM and if we buy them at the right age we might get the integration right, if we buy a 28-29 year old, by the time a decent youngster is 20 they could naturally take over from the older player.
But we have to improve the team because at a club this size there is no room for players that are lackluster and we cant wait 3 years until some of these youngsters are good enough.
I mostly agree with you are saying but there is another side to this. If our form doesn’t improve and we fail to win trophies or make it to the champion’s league, I can guarantee you that we will lose more players as well. Also when you bring is someone like Arshavin, there is a good chance players like Vela or maybe even Bendtner could learn a few things from him. The trick is to find that balance where your experienced players does not get in the way of the development of your youth players. Right now we dont have that balance so one or two added players could do us a world of good.
I agree with Jamie totally, I think Wenger should buy maybe one experienced player and maybe a player between the ages of 17 and 21 or 22. First of all Nordtveit is back which gives more options at the back. If Wenger is short on wingers why not give Merida and Randall ago.Edourdo is back soon so more options upfront. If you look at the team that beat Chelsea this season there were players who were bought under the ages of 21 farely cheap and brought up to be good players, excluding Almunia, Gallas, Sagna, Nasri.Now look at Chelsea s team they could have spent up to 150 million on that team. For the price Arsenal spent onthere players it calculates to be around 60 or 70 million, huge difference and we beet them. That whole teams value now is about near enough to 150 million.We picked up 7 points so far against the top four teams, thats excellent but we struggle against the lesser teams, mainly because those teams take a different aproach to things, the physical side. So ideally if Wenger could buy a big,strong, physical,experienced centre half, eg Matthew Upson,Brede Hangeland,etc. Then buy his knitty gritty centre midfielder who doesnt have to be 26 or 27 in or around 20, eg Stephane Mbia,or someone quite similiar.Then people really do demand a winger maybe buy a young player with some bit of experience, eg Axel Witsel,Elia, or preferably a young player with some premiership experience. Dont forget Bischoff might not be too far off the first team either. So reall there is no need to buy dear, big name players when you could just buy player as good, maybe younger aand not such a big name. People also have to remember that Arsenal dont have as much money as we think they do, so this maybe the only option, buy two or three players for the price of one so called big name.
Couldn’t agree more. If only most arsenal fans would share the sentiments and stop playing football manager. The team will be fine
All true but the need to buy has not been more urgent than ever before. The current “youngsters” such as song are not good enough yet (maybe never). The team needs cover and it has been talked to death. The fact is we are 5th in the league, not qualifying for the CL will be a disaster.
The time is now to buy and plug the gaping holes in the team. As has been said by arseblogger and others, the cream will always rise to the top. It is fallacy to say that buying young players will stunt their progress.
You make a good point, J. Although I think Wenger HAS to buy one experienced player this January to replace Rosicky who may never play for us again, sadly.
But regarding player purchases in general, you’re right. Cesc said in an interview that it meant so much to him that AW did give youngsters a chance and would not buy a “name” who would play ahead of the younger player even (in Cesc’s words) “if the guy isn’t better than you”. If AW looks a young player and his parents in the eyes and tells them that he will compete for a place in the first team, then he has to be true to his word, otherwise the top youngsters will not come to Arsenal.
Great post, Mr. Sanderson.
The club needs EXPERIENCE and FAST!! We cannot keep relying on these kids to become World beaters one day. We’ve been breading kids for years, but some pls tell me, WHAT HAVE WE WON?
A couple of experienced players would not damage the kids progress. It would only make them grow as they would be rubbing shoulders and learning from the experienced players.
At the moment it’s all Sheeps following Sheeps!! Some of the players we have are simply not good enough, but the funny thing is they feel they are better than what they are!!
The reason the Mancs are really good, is that they have both Experienced and Youthful players and the Experienced players are there for guidance and keeping the team level headed, but at Arsenal, it’s all Kids who are all Egoistic. Our experienced players are all Hot heads who always have something to say. Gallas, Van Persie, Adebayor and now Toure, are these the people our young Gunners are suppose to look up to? They dont even have a clue on been matured!!
So Yes, Mr Wenger must buy at least 3 experienced players if we want th club and team to be challenging for Honours for years to come
I think that if your good enough then you’ll play whoever is in the first team. If we dont buy now then we could become a top 8 rather than tour 4 team then they’ll leave anyway.They’ll be given a chance like walcott,henry,vieira,fabregas,clichy.Whether itz by someone leaving or jus being better. Not may strikers at 19 or 20 are first choice for there clubs anyway.
Great article, am fed up of reading about how many millions we should be spending! I believe in our youth policy and am proud to support a club that has principles. We must keep showing our players, manager and board that they have our support.
Come on, Gooners, show our young players we have confidence in them and they will produce the performances (and results) that we are hoping for.
Also we should’nt just hand these youngsters first team spots because they become 18. They will have to fight like the rest of the first team.
J, let be a little factual and quit being shy to tell the truth. We have being talking about the future for 4yrs now and yet we arent there…when is the future going to be , after 10years without a trophy?
I believe if you are good enough and take your chances, you would be first choice no matter the age of the player competing for your position. Moreover, Arsenal is not Arsenal academy, but Arsenal football club, you should all get that into your heads, Wenger inclusive. We are a top four side trying to win trophies every year, not a championship side or government academy for developing youngsters.
Who cares about hurting their feelings? If they are good enough then they will make it. Arsenal and its fans come first and the youngsters have to come behind that, if they don’t like it they can always go elsewhere because I, like every other Arsenal fan am sick of waiting for these “youngsters” we need experienced players to win things, besides only Wilshere, Vela, Ramsey and Traore are worth a toss anyway.
The number of players injured is consistantly high. When week after week consistantly there are up to 9 players out injured and us consistantly dropping points then we know that the squad isnt big enough. Ok so we could put in the youngsters and hope for the best, but we arent. Go figure. Ramsey, wilshere, gibbs and co have consistantly been on the bench and yet the number of premier league games they have featured is can be counted on one hand. The youngsters may be in the squad but they are not being used so ultimately we may as well have more senior players in there.
Secondly, lets count the amount of players that have left the club in the summer transfer windows of the past few years. These players have not been replaced by more senior players but rather have given way to players of a consitantly younger age. Now we have a group of young players playing weekly in the PL but unfortunately they arent ready yet and are costing us dearly. If we lose another 5 players in the summer then we’ll be left with the likes of ramsey, wilshere, merida, hoyte, simpson etc who have absolutely no experience.
Thirdly there is no point commenting on spending too much money as we stand to lose a whole lot more if we should fall out of the top four due to inconsistency.
I would also add as a final point that buying 26-8 year old would be the perfect solution because no-one seems to stay much beyond 30 and this would be perfect timing for the next generation of superstars coming through.
I will end by quote Mr Wenger who consistently says after losing a game that ‘buying players is not the solution after one bad result’. In principle I agree but unfortunately its been four years since we won anything so maybe its time for a change in strategy.
hi i read your post regularly, i agree what you’ve said here. I feel that arshavin would restrict the development of youngsters. However i do feel that apart from coquelin, who although shows great promise is too young too play regularly in the premiership that we lack good cover in defensive midfield. I feel that with the loss of flamini our team has been significantly worse this year. Havign flamini allowed Fabregas to press forwards hence the greater amount of goals scored. Therefore if Wenger reads this can you sign an experienced DMC thanks
It’s seems bizarre to me that people demand that arsene spends and accuse arsenal of being poor because they don’t. This isn’t football manager, there are repurcussions to spending.
Have a little faith, if it goes tits up we can sell our soul to a foreign investor and become chelsea MKII (zzz) if that’s what all the fans want.
If Arshavin should arrive, he would most likely play on eiter flank of the midfield. Adebayor, van Perise, Eduardo, Bendtner and Vela are too many to be using Arshavin as a striker.
But I you what you mean by this, and I think you have a point.
I would cry for days if we lost Henri Lansbury!!( The next Gerrand).
Fair enough Jamie, but being a successful club is winning things. The longer we go without winning, the less we will attract young up and coming whizkids. Man utd have “whizkids” in Anderson, Nani, and the Brazilian twins, and they win things. Why, because they also buy/loan players like Tevez, Vidic, Van De sar etc…..so i think an Arshavin or an Arteta would not go amiss in this transfer window, if only to lift morale! Oh yeah, and how much longer do we give Bendtner…..i think we loaned out the wrong forward to WBA!!!
Bendtner has had more than enough chances to show his worth, and this season has failed to do so. What is the point in bringing through these youngsters if the minute they become any good and Barca and Real start knocking they up and leave anyway, they show no loyalty to the club so I see no reason we as fans should show any loyalty to them.
Talking about experience I don’t really care, but we need to strengthen up this squad with players who can come in and do a job NOW, not in 2 or 3 years, whether they are 18 or 28. There is clearly a lack of competition in this squad which is shown by the sheer arrogance and lazyness of players like Bendtner, Adebayor, Diaby, Song, Eboue, who clearly have the talent to succeed, but it takes more than talent, it takes determination and a will to fight for your place.
True quality will always come through. Fabregas came in when Vieira, Edu and Gilberto were in midfield, Cashley came through and had to work to beat Sylvinho to his place, who was an excellent left back at the time, Toure came through when Adams, Keown and Campbell were there. If you tell a player they can play as shit as they want all the time and they will still get picked they are never going to up their performance.
We don’t need to spend loads, but we need new faces in there, a statement from Wenger to these youngsters that they can’t get away with these crappy performances anymore and that if they want games they have to seize their chance when they get it. This club is not a creche, these pampered toddlers have had their chance and not taken it.
The club must come first.
totally agree, the most sensible and realistic post I’ve read anywhere for a while. The kids are so hyped up we have to give them a chance or there is no point. I would sacrifice a couple more years of realistic success for legendary success in the future
interesting piece as always. Im a big fan of many of the young guns, possibly more with the generation behind vela and co, but I think we need to be sensible and 1 or 2 older heads in the team will help the young uns express themselves and dilute the responsability on their shoulders. I agree, that with Eduardo hopefully back towards the end of the month, a striker is not the priority, but we still go back to a holding midfielder and a CB, giving us experience down the spine of the team. I know there is talk of an attacking wide player coming in and I would agree with the general concensus that Vela could / should be the solution to that problem, which wont do him any harm preeparing for a more central role when the time comes. I am also quite keen to see Ramsey playing CM a great all round player attacking, but still puts the boot in. The CB position has room for change and it wont hold back our young talent as Hoyte, Norveidt, Thomas & Barkey are a couple years away anyway. It would be good to see Djouru partnered with some quality.
In fairness you say the future is never here, but thats wrong.
The midfield that played against Chelsea in the Carling Cup final a few years ago was the same midfield that beat Man Utd this season. So that proves the kids are coming through with good success.
We’ve always got good talents coming through, so the future is always bright. It’s just about getting everybody to click.
And thanks for the support guys :)
IF Arsenal continue to struggle and no action is taken in the window it will be a case of I told you so. Furthermore if the cl qualifications is gone dont think for a second it can be easily reclaimed. I take t could at least two years at a minimum, By then there could be gaping holes in the ES.
The board will then in desperation give AW gbp billions not millions to right the situation. Bythe the othe big 3 will have gone to another level and with MC,Everton and AV improving it will Uefa cup. Of corse AW’s kids could have grown up but will ther young guys in the other teams.
I agree whole heartedly JS and enjoy reading your site. I do feel we do need a couple in, just to freshen the team up. This supposed issue with kolo doesnt help. We need victory through harmony.
I am happy with the defence with Djourou in the middle alongside either gallas or an inform kolo if possible. The full backs are sorted, bring traore back though, we need his pace.
In midfield we do need one more minimum with walcott and fab sidelined and rosicky well, not available? / injured and out till god only knows.
Unlike most i see the potential in song and rate both diaby and denilson, just i dont think they are ready to cope week in week out without someone else in there with them. And wenger needs to get the balance right in the middle, often we have lacked width and genuine pace in some line ups, look at the difference when vela came on against pompey. Gibbs, wilshere, ramsey and vela are the ones we need to get and keep involved, merida has great prospects too. Up front we have vela as mentioned with eduardo coming back, van persie, ade and nick.
So what do we really need, arshavin would offer several options mainly he would add some extra creativity to compliment nasri.
I owuld like a strong mid man with a rolls royce engine who get stuck in, {parlour esq} Parker maybe? for this we need to look past the star names. Unless there is one in the reserves that i do not know? js any thoughts>> The only other thing i would consider is if given is available i would buy him>>>>
So priority – Arshavin, Parker and given. But i do agree with you that it is a balancing act between getting the team firing and keeping the youth coming through.
Well said J, well said. I am willing to miss out on a few trophies, and lets be honest our chances of winning anything this season are slim to none now, if it means we see a re-emergence of English talent at Arsenal. I for one really want to see Randall, Lansbury, Gibbs, Hoyte, Simpson and Wilshere become world beaters and form the back bone of the future England national team.
fair point jay.
but we are a club who hasnt had silveware since 2005. So in januarry we need to make signings to bulster are 11 and overcome the trophyless cabnet. Inler, Arshavin, Mexes. In Arsene We Trust
I do agree with this too a certain extent but Eboue is experienced and does not perform on a consistent level and even then is very mediocre so we have Theo as ‘Whatever their form, they are almost first choice’ when he is not yet consitent enough and he is out for months.
I also agree with Wenger about a loan option being good, be it Podolski or an experienced defensive midfielder ‘a la’ Emerson, Seedorf, or even Appiah or Gravesen for a trial period of 5 months or so. Just an idea
the thing is..if the youngsters are good enough then they will rise above the arshavin’s and play as first team members..arsenal cant keep taking years out of winning things to keep develop youngsters so that one day they bugger off to barcelona
Wow! Have you been at the cooking sherry?
That has got to be one of the most stoopidest posts ever!
Trotting out the old chestnut that buying quality players will some how be a hindrance to the young players is bollocks! If that were the case NO club would sign anyone.
How is signing proven experienced players gonna halt the developmkent of Wilshire, Djourou, Vela? Aint gonna happen. If they are good enough they will play.
Now, Im all for players coming i9n to stifle the huge talents of Song, Eboue, Almunia….
Seriously, it is this attitude that is holding us back and its gotta stop NOW!
Arsenal should adapt a system like Real Madrid or Barcelona, which loans players who are looking a break through to the first team. It’s a success with players alot of players and if your looking a quick profit it brings the prices up alot, also most recent De La Red who was out on loan, has made the break through into madrid team, until recently injured there.
bendtner cant say sh*i if we buy asharvin…..he’s had his chances and he has not taken them by both hands..
I agree with your words on trust and balance in the youth mr.sanderson, though I do have to agree with Steve and look at the role models that lift the younger players up. Then its important to look at their attitude, not exactly what Hleb for example did well. Look at Adams, who led on to Campbell, to Toure. Not the least Wrighty who Henry said thought him how to be a goalgetter.
We cant spoon feed these youngsters…most of them wont even make it…jay simpson are close in talent maybe bendtner is marginally better but i hope he proves me wrong…Surely jack wilshere will be better than eboue soon if not now…Surely ramsey will be better than denilson so he will play…But at 17,18,19 even 20 its hard to be a first choice midfielder…We cant consider the likes of nordveit or afobe now…if there better than the current ones they’ll come through with time just like fabregas or theo…But we have to win now not wait 5 years to win or else they’ll leave.
Failing to qualify for the Champions League would be a massive blow. If Villa get the 4th spot, they will be able to strengthen their side and Lerner will likely make more funds available. Just as importantly, the door will be open that much wider for City. If the Arsenal were to miss out on champions league football two years running, what would happen to the business plan? Club level membership and executive suites don’t mix with UEFA Cup football. How many out of Cesc, Ade, RvP and Sagna would stay. One? None?
If signing one, two or three players is needed to overtake Villa, it must be done – regardless of whether it upsets the likes of Diaby, Denilson, Song, Bendtner, Vela and Ramsey.
We lack quality and experience. And as promising as Ramsey, Vela and Wilshere are, they aren’t going to benefit from missing out of Champions League football either. And once we relinquish that fourth spot, who is to say we’ll get it back?
Personally, I’d like to see two or even three players come in during the window and then release Eboue in the summer and sell Diaby, Bendtner, Senderos, Traore and Randall. We can assume that Gallas will leave and decisions then must be taken on Bischoff and Rosicky. As for the rest of the Reserve and Youth players, they can force their way into the squad by standing out in the Emirates Tournament, the Carling Cup and loan spells.
Spike – that’s crap.
If we sign an experienced striker. Then Vela is pushed further down the pecking order. It’s just logical that the more players in a position the less everybody gets to play.
Experienced players will often get picked ahead of youngsters because they are older, even if they are less talented.
Im not saying never buy an experienced player, but buying 3-4 will damage the chances of some of the best youngsters around coming through.
VERY VERY true… I have been saying exactly the same thing on countless Arsenal forums.
What most (I hate to say it, but it seems it is the majority) Arsenal fans consider most important is the current, this season, maybe next season at a stretch…anything further away than that is irrelevant. That’s why the ‘football manager brigade’ (fmb) as I call them seem to view big signings as the solution. Big name player, done it elsewhere, will fit into the team, guaranteed success. WRONG! The problem is, that such short-termists are totally at odds with Arsene Wengers footballing philosophy. He is trying to create something more than a flash in the pan at Arsenal. As an Arsenal fan, I want to see the club still strong in 10, 20 years time…Wenger is building the foundations first, creating a tradition at the club so that we are at the front of the queue when young players come on the radar.
A few ‘star’ signings might bring success, but at what price? The fnb were no doubt once claiming that Henry was not a striker, that Pires was too weak for the rough and tumble of the Premiership, that Fabregas as too young, that Flamini wasn’t good enough and that this unknown called Wenger was crazy to bring some reject from Milan called Vieira. Of course, they were proved wrong…
I am struck by how much this mirrors the economic situation facing this country. People are short-termist. The reason the West is in such trouble is that people just expect to be able to use money which they don’t have…someone else will sort out how they pay it back. ‘Why doesn’t Wenger just SPLASH THE CASH and put Arshavin on the club credit card?’ So it’s no surprise that most feel upset when their football clubs are not perennial big spenders. Wenger sees this, he sees that big spending is unsustainable. He also sees that the pound almost has parity with the euro now, while seems most commenters on this forum haven’t noticed. Don’t people understand it makes a difference? When the trend of rich foreign owners dies down, things will be back to how a club is run, and it will be the sustainable ones which will survive. Those who go bust will not simply be able to reload the game.
What about the players who clearly aren’t good enough then? I understand that Vela and Wilshere are more than ready to step into the first team, but what about the underperformers like Denilson and Eboue? We don’t need to splash the cash, all we need is some quality, reasonably priced players like Sagna and Eduardo to shore up our squad. Youngsters can wait, look at Clichy. He waited and waited and now he’s finally getting his chance and doing really well.
I think that the general negative sentiment surrounding Arsenal’s season is misplaced, at least from a long term perspective, although certain results and overall quality of football this season ought to be brought under scrutiny. Its always frustrating when you see a team with the potential of Arsenal not playing to their potential, but I have faith that they will come good. Wenger hasn’t been at Arsenal for the better part of a decade and a half for nothing.
I. Positives from A Long Term Perspective
First, while winning the title may be out of the question this season, a Champions League slot is still not out of the question, and many points still remain up for grabs. All squads tend to have their ups and downs in form during the season, and Chelsea, Liverpool, Man Utd. and Aston Villa haven’t seen their form drop yet.
Second, with the depleted squad that Arsenal currently has, it is in a fairly good position. Experienced first team players like Rosicky and Eduardo have been out for a while, while Flamini and Hleb were sold over the summer. When fully fit, Rosicky and Eduardo will amount to a “new signing” and bring back some much needed depth and experience. Diaby has recently come back and has looked decent, but yet to hit top form- when he starts to complete some of the final passes he has been giving away, he will be the player he looked like against Milan at the San Siro during last year’s Champions League. Eboue is back and will take some time to hit top form, too. Fabregas will be missed, but Song, Denilson, and Diaby have the ability and determination to fill the gap while he is gone. Don’t forget that Walcott has been out and won’t be back for another month- he adds width and speed to give Arsenal another dimension, and has been sorely missed. So far, the younger players have done pretty well given the circumstances, in my view.
Third, it may be best not to sign any older players where younger players are available to fill a particular role. For example, talks of signing Xabi, one of Liverpool’s best players, seem unrealistic and his price tag and wage demands would likely hurt Arsenal’s financial position more than help it. Diaby fills this role quite well when fully fit and in form in my view. A creative player like Arshavin may make a useful signing at the right price. While I admire Arshavin, Arsenal also has plenty of young players to fill this role, like Nasri and Walcott, and the chance he would be available for the right price is slim.
Fourth, results against other title contenders have been positive (but not outstanding), with Arsenal’s record against the other top sides at 2-2-1, and seeing Arsenal come away with 8 out of a possible 15 points. November and December saw matchups against Man Utd. (W 2-1), Aston Villa (L 0-2), at Chelsea (W 2-1), Liverpool (D 1-1), and at Aston Villa (D 2-2).
II. Things That Need Immediate Improvement
First, the quality of Arsenal’s football has been lacking, save the 4-1 victory at Bolton. The movement off the ball in a lot of games this season hasn’t been very good. I think this is what upsets me the most, as I’m an Arsenal fan because they play attractive, attacking football, the way I believe football should be played.
Second, dropping all 3 points to Hull, Stoke, and Fulham is unacceptable for a team of Arsenal’s quality. The loss at home to Hull was extremely disappointing, and Geovanni should not have had the time and space to get the shot off that led to his goal. Improvements seem to have been made in this department and Arsenal have looked more rugged and determined in recent weeks, although Zat Knight’s goal coming in stoppage time of the 2-2 draw away at Aston Villa is unacceptable, and a precious three points were lost.
Third, the bitching that appears to be going on behind the scenes needs to stop immediately. Players who want to bitch should be dropped until they start acting like professionals again. I don’t remember an Arsenal side bitching as much as the current one. Wenger should use the threat of buying players in the transfer market as motivation for certain players to start performing and to stop acting like pansies.
I just read something Wenger has said, after my post above, and I feel every Arsenal fan should read it. So I hope you don’t mind J if I quote it:
“What I do know is that I have worked harder than ever, tried to be intelligent and was more committed than ever.
“And I believe that the work we have done at this club over the last two or three years will only be appreciated by some people in 10 years’ time.”
“The way we have managed this club will put us in a very strong position in this crisis because we don’t live on the edge financially.
“We don’t rely on one person to finance us and we won’t depend on the banks. We respect our budget and we should not be in trouble.
“Other clubs will not be so fortunate. There are 15 clubs up for sale in England and no-one is buying them. That tells you everything.
“Some of the transfer fees that are being mentioned at the moment are completely crazy but at Arsenal we are not living in dreamland.
“We have a new stadium, we are in good financial shape and we are still playing at the top of the table every year.
“How many other clubs can say that? All the other clubs apart from Manchester United are losing money.
“Chelsea have not built a new stadium and still lose £100million in a year. Arsenal would go bankrupt in that position.”
———————————————–
so there it is, Wenger sets it out for all those who don’t see WHY he isn’t spending big. He has the long term future of the club at heart. And also, to kh, I agree, but, saying we should just get some ‘solid’ players such as Eduardo and Sagna is too simplistic. Sagna was good at Auxerre. But he played 3 seasons there, wasn’t exceptional, and since joining us has become in my opinion the best right back in the world. That’s the genius of Wenger at work, but such players are few and far between.
Well put. The conflicting views of club’s long term future on one side and the present in adequateness on the other is not easy to solve.
As Wenger says no one will be able to appreciate until the next 5-6 years or so. More the reason I believe that winning the premiership last year would have given a lot of breathing space for the manager.
But he has got some key decisions wrong in the near past. Letting Diarra go, letting Hleb go, not buying when there was money.
I am amazed as to how Manu have splashed the cash yet again on two young players. They continue to do so.
I think we not giving much importance to experience at the club is detrimental. Sol Campbell, Viera, Pires could have well stayed at the club for 2-3 years more and helped the youngsters to come on to handling the pressure in a much better way.
Selling Gilberto was another mind boggling decision I have seen.
Giving Sylvest a 2 year deal while denying the same to Patrick and Pires. We are missing stalwarts at the club when we need them most, and the blame lies only with one person.
We’ve already in the position where players like Song and Denilson are, if fit, first choice. By your logic, they’re getting in the way of the development of Ramsey, Wilshere, Lansury, Merida etc. Thing is, we need quality experienced player around so that the youngsters have someone to look up to. We stuffed up when we sold Vieria and co. to soon.
Arshavin would push Eboue and Diaby out of the wings, not Vela out of the striker position. If a youngster is good enough for us, he will play anyways. If we have a better player than him, I don’t care if he isn’t playing. The team’s needs should be priority, not a 20 year-old player’s, who may leave to a Spanish/Italian club anyways.
Its hardly a bad thing to push Bendtner down the pecking order is it?
OMFG what is up with some of you people,
1) How can you say if we should try using randall or merida on the wings. firstly you have a go at wenger for playing denilson and diaby out of position, so why is it ok to play a worser player out of position. I admit that they have looked ok in carling cup but they arnt gonna secure 4th fuking place are they.
2) Why should we play notulent 17yr olds ahead of proven worldclass players. Because they might get annoyed that they arnt good enough.
Im sure arshavin wouldnt mind that. O sorry we didnt sign you but there was a stroppy 16 yr old who might leave us if we signed you.
YOU FUCKING LOAN THEM OUT TO GET 1ST TEAM FOOTBALL AND WHEN THEY ARE GOOD ENOUGH THEN THEY PLAY IN THE 1ST TEAM, YOU DONT RISK 1 PLAYERS DEVELOPMENT TO LOOSING 4TH SPOT. FFS CANT YOU SEE THAT.
It seems that at Arsenal, the future is always bright. But unfortunately the present always sucks. If there is no change from the youth policy, this may continue forever. We have already seen that good players won’t stay forever at Arsenal waiting for the youth to gain experience. They will leave, either for more money or for a better shot at glory. Eventually, some of these youth will do the same. So, we cannot keep harping about youth being destroyed by signing good players. Balance is the order of the day and it is sorely missing at Arsenal presently, as painfully pointed out this season.
Personally, I think players 28+ would be perfect. Look at Wenger’s recent successes. Clichy came into his own at 22. Flamini at 23. Adebayor at 23/4. And if you look all around, most promising talents don’t really start performing at great heights till 23+.
Now, look at our team. Deni is 20, Song 21, Nasri 20, Theo 20, Djourou (ironically, currently our best CB) 21, Bendtner and Vela 20 etc. They all undoubtably shine at times, and considering Wenger’s record, could all turn out to be superstars.
We shouldn’t write off their careers but bringing in added experience to a) compete and b) learn from until they reach their true potential will help the club out more than anything. And then think, it is incomparable the experience of learning in the CL v. the Uefa, so it is of upmost importance to qualify.
I am asking for 28ish year olds in a couple positions because we only need a stop-gap solution for the next couple seasons. And even then, players that would be OK with youngsters out-shining them and still having to compete for their place – so whereas Hleb couldn’t handle Theo taking over at RM, we’d need someone who’d, for example, see say Denilson outshine him to take his place at DM and just shut up, train as hard to get back in the first XI and be OK as a kingmaker and help the youngster.
The real problem J with the current reserves is not temp signings. Pick any position – for this example we’ll use LM. Nasri is 20 and is touted by the best to have a stunning career, and has been winning prestigious awards for years. Say he stays and cements his place for the next 10 years, Merida and Traore, his closest direct competetion, do not have that head start and are will only see 1 or 2 more years in their career than him. If we buy a 28 year old Gallas replacement, On the other hand, Nordtveit won’t have a problem, in 5 years time he will have grafted as back-up/rotation in time to take over and have a good career (touch wood) much like Djourou has done.
Great thinking Smauel !!!!!!!!!!
JS whos the best youth plyer you seen in the reserves throughout the years? The best youth plyer i have seen was probably Nicklas Bendtner. Thought he was brilliant in the reserves him and lupoli were brilliant
peter_afc: People asking for players from the reserves to play on the wings isn’t that absurd. (cheers for the compliment btw). Bischoff, Merida, Vela and Wilshere are all incredibly promising and while none are yet worthy of a full time starting berth, we have roughly 2 months until Theo comes back. 4 very talented youngsters, 1 position – to gather them together and say you’ll have a chance to prove yourself cannot hurt us. 4 players competeting for 1 position (not inc. Simpson, Barazite and Traore) while we have a reasonably easy fixture list could not only give them valuable experience but also surprise us with a player playing like they can prove to the fans (and coaches) that they are worthy of competeting with Nasri and Theo.
i totally agree with you j. we need a dm but that is it. iw ould like to see players like arshavin and arteta in our squad, but i will much rather see the likes of wilshere, ramsey, merida and even simpson playing for arsenal.
loo at the likes of real madrid, all they do is buy experinced players which means that they give a chance to their youth. look at how many top quality youth players real madrid have produced but how many of them are currently playing for them they are just selling their youth away.
i would much rather see arsenal giving a chance to the youth them see the players play elsewhere.
* which means they DONT give a chance
i agree with you, in principle. however, i trust wenger to sort through the youth ranks and determine who will and will not be quality. he must protect those players- others will not be so lucky. further, we have lost experienced players over the last few years without replacing any of that experience. perhaps we should have brought in one experienced player each of the last two transfer windows and another this one, but we did not. To bring in two or three this one (if financially viable) would not be absurd and might not even hurt the “youth” movement- even in the short term!
on the other hand some of the players/positions under consideration are not “youth” spots. a top quality CB will more than likely affect toure/gallas/silvestre who are all in poor form and no spring chickens.
the same goes for GK (if that is actually under consideration).
DM is a bit of an issue and wenger will have to decide what we have and whether it will actually be good enough in the end. to date, song/diaby have not been good enough, although i am coming to appreciate denilson’s simple passes and consistency after everyone else’s recent performances. picking up someone like appiah would seem to make sense as it would be cheap, add experience and be more short term perhaps. but given the fact that no one has signed him other things must be going on there.
which brings us to what i think our most critical need may be- wingers! nasri and walcott have been wonderful- when they have been on the field. we need more depth/quality here. eboue/denilson/diaby/song can not bring us what we need on the outside. we need some combination of craft/guile/speed to compete. i would love to see wilshere/vela get more time out there but we could also stand to have ONE experienced player added to the mix (and while i do hope rosicky comes back from the dead i will not be holding my breath)! the idea of arteta seems perfect (even if wildly optimistic) as he can fill in for cesc in the middle and play on the outside in the future.
right now we do not have enough wide midfielders and it is killing us. we do not have a destroyer in the middle of the park to get us the ball back (our biggest problem at the beginning of the year) and it is hurting us. and our central defense is vulnerable. these problems need to be rectified b/c we can not afford to fall out of the top 4!
We need to sell Bendtner. Arshavin over that useless lump every day.
Experience lol i look at gallas and silverte and i laugh there the most experience and there the ones that do most of the mistakes what a joke we just need bloody wingers and real defenders that want to bloody defend.This might coz up raw but we need english players that want to win the prem.
J., I generally am in agreement with your posts, but this one is out of touch from the title on down. Uproar from youngsters? It’s this type of spoiled brat mentality that seems to be infecting some of the players in the first-team (Song in particular). It’s patently obvious to anyone who’s watched this team this season that we are missing a defensive midfielder, and while Denilson may develop into something special, he isn’t that now. I’d love to see the kids break through, but not at the expense of Arsenal FC. The club comes first, and its about time some of the lads realised this. If a youngster breaks into a quality side with depth, then he deserves to be there. But it’s time for the kids to earn their spurs (pardon the expression), and competition for places with experienced veterans will only help them develop. I love this site, but this post was out of order.
I am with your view js but i still think that we need a defensive midfielder and i can’t think of any up-and-coming defensive midfielder at our club that is going to a first team regular.
we also should be able to get a central defender as it won’t push djorou too far down the peaking order, as he is the only central defender breaking into the team.
J.S are you going to do a quick report on Simpson’s first match ?
I think there should be a rule that you can buy only 2 players over 21 in the transfer window and then you solve the rest by bringing up emerging talent or buy them. This way it stops the teams with lots and lots of money from buying everyone and makes things a bit fairer on the lesser teams. People really have to remember Wenger doesnt have that much money to spend this January.
i trust and respect this blog very much, but i have to disagree this time.
first of all, during the invincible year, we had youngsters and they are playing or mixing around with experience, good players.
now, the amazing kids such as vela, wilshere, coquelin and ramsey are surrounded by the not good enough(diaby,song, denilson) kids themselves. how are they ever going to learn.it keeps going backward. and the cream of the crop will rise to the top so no worries on the kids going.
but i do think that sometimes our fans can get a bit hasty, we say we dont care if we sell our youngsters but when we did, with the likes of bentley and sidwell, now some are saying we shld have nvr let them go and blaming wenger for it and so on.
and i think if we do buy,(which we must minimum of 2-3 players) we must sell our the not so good enough ones, so that our first 11 is mighty strong and bench is full of our youngsters who have a fair bit of experience and are really talented!
DENILSON HAS BEEN OUR BEST BLOODY PLAYER THIS SEASON AND HAS THE OPTA STATS TO PROVE IT STOP BEING A FUCKING MORON.
Sorry, I can’t stand it with always people talking shit like they know what they are on about but really don’t have a clue.
Jamie, AW gived you some money to write this article??? joking mate :D
I need to say I agree with you but I want a defensive midfielder to come. We have very promising youngster in this position like Coquelin or Frimpong but they are too young actually. I think we have actually the best youngsters ever in the club. Wilshere-Ramsey-Gibbs-COquelin-Frimpong-Vela-Walcott or Fabregas who is only 21. Give them 4 more years and you will what happens. I did the same article last year on my blog and people had the same reaction. Jamie, you have all my support :D
How does this team win anything at any point in the next 5 years if it risks losing its best players every summer?
If we don’t qualify for the CL, I think most of our squad will stick around (though I’d imagine Ade will leave on mutual consent). However, what happens if City do become the next Chelsea and Arsenal don’t make it into the CL consecutive seasons? Luxury suites, club level membership, most expensive tickets in the league and the UEFA Cup…
Will Wenger sign another contract? Will the supporters turn on him? And what becomes of Fabregas, van Persie and Sagna? Sure that is a load of hypotheticals and I think we can finish fourth this season, but let’s exercise some prudence and do whatever it takes to reasonably insure we don’t get knocked off our European perch.
Attacking player and defensive midfielder required!
The way i see it Wenger needs to make a choice this transfer window. Either be bullish about his own philosophy nd promote a few youngesters to the first team, such as Gibbs, Randall, Ramsey, Coquelin even Nordtveit, Jay-Thomas, Frimpong nd Wilshire, nd give them a chance to show what they can do, nd personally i dont think any of those players are physically or technically incapable of playing at that level, or concede defeat and sign Arshavin, a good experianced central mid, nd a young (21+), pacey, strong, good in the air, technically able centre back, nd not run the risk of turning us into an academy for europes rich nd successful.
The first is a risk because the young players might not be able to make a big enough impact, or even just the right impact, and the second is a risk since it could not work, nd then we’d be back to squere one, plus around 30-40 mil down the frying pan.
Personally i favour the first option + maybe bringing in an experianced center mid who can stay with us for a couple of seasons and a CB since i really dont think Silvestre is good enough, hes decent but hardly better than Gallas or Toure, and certainly too similar.
Either way its guna be an interesting, buttock clenching transfer window nd season.
Btw, by promote i mean properly promote as in play them regulaly nd consider them just as possible starters as any of the current first team, since most of those players have already been promoted, just not fully yet.
It’s honourable that Arsenal invest so much time and energy into the Youth Team, but any player we sign shouldn’t expect to play first team football within a good few years of joining the club. Let’s be honest, if we pick up a 16 year old Mexican wonderkid, there are worse places he could end up than in London playing for one of the top four teams in the greatest league in the world.
We have pumped a lot of energy into players such as Jérémie Aliadière, Justin Hoyte and Nik Bendtner who simply aren’t good enough to play for Arsenal. To say that these players would want to leave the club if we sign one or two big names is surely absurd! Arsenal become more of a competitive force and the youngsters have quality players to learn the trade from. They’re taking Wenger’s youth policy for granted if they expect a first team position. They may get more exposure to first team football at Arsenal than at many other big clubs, but they aren’t owed anything.
On the flipside, we get big players like Flamini, Henry, Cole and Hleb leaving because we can’t string a haul in any silverware. Arsenal might not necessarily need ‘huge’ signings, just established and proven ones that can reinforce the team.
There again, i hate to be the one to say it but can i just point out that what we say should happen, is, almost never what Wenger ends up doing, yet most of the time we end up thanking him for what he does time nd time again. Maybe we should all just stick with the Wenger knows philosophy for a bit longer nd if it turns out he didnt, well neva mind, he would have done what hes going to do whether we’d supported him or not.
Btw…as for the winger problem, we could get Barbosa from Porto. Hes a young winger (21) who stunned me for years but for some reason has never been given a proper chance at porto despite impressing for the portuguese national youth sides, loan clubs and on his rare porto first team appearences for a few years now. He can play on either wing, is pacey, skillful, strong and unselfish. Plus he was linked with us (admittedly on his wikipedia page) a couple of seasons back.
I know it’ll never happen but lets be realistic Arshavin is hardly Wengers style, nd he even said he didnt think he had the stamina to play in the premiership in the summer meening hes obviously not his biggest admirer, so thats not likely to happen either.
im guna shut up now…
There’s a winger Iganizo Abate saw playing for Italian Toulon winners Awesome!! speed I believe he plays for Torino? Came though AC Milan youth system? Anyone hear of him?
I like your site but I don’t agree with you on this youth policy issue. We are not a nursery. If these players’ feelings get so easily hurt tough. If they’re good then they will push their way to the first team. Competition makes players better. This team is too unbalanced. As a result our performance have been inconsistent and disjointed.
I think the opposite to that.
One or two more experienced players who’ve won trophies elsewhere will inspire the current crop of young players to go onto bigger things. Like how Henry inspired Adebayor or Cashley showed Clichy how to make it.
“But spending could in fact do more damage that it will good – in the longer term.”
Come again?
Do you really believe what you said there? the longer term?
The youth squad have an average age below 20, so how would signing a 26-27 experienced hungry player damage their chances of breaking into the top team in 3-4 years? THAT player would then be above 30 and hence be automatically sold by Wenger (as per the norm).
The problem we have in the top team is that we have too many young players who know that they have their full career ahead of them and so are in no rush to commit at the moment to a dedicated all season campaign to win a trophy as they consider they will have the chance to win something in the 10 year career they have ahead of them.
That is why you see players like Adebayor, Van Persie, Gallas, and Sagna committing themselves on the pitch more than players like Song and Denilson.
The club can not afford to wait another 3-4 years for this young crop of players to “mature” and start wanting the title, nor can it afford to sign 5-6 experienced players and kill the investment they made in the youth.
Nobody is asking to buy a whole new team, or players in the region of £30-40m .. we want one or two players signed and deployed in areas we have shortage of experience in. We want structure and not 4 central midfield players on the pitch at one given time.
we should take advantage and buy Schmeichel and Podolski.
Ignazio Abate would make an interesting signing. He plays for Torino and is co-owned by Milan and Torino. I’ve played against him when he was in Milan’s youth team, very fast, was quite impressed with his technique, wondered where he went for a while. Likely the fastest Italian ever.
tell me what u guys think?
Arsenal dose not need offense. We need defence.
We have ade, rvp, nasri, Walcott, Rosický, and the future carlos phucken vela, we have the attacking squad we just need better defenders outside of sagna- glichy- we need a big strong defensive mid and two more center backs- we should get rid of the lame Dane. He is robbing vela’s minutes to develope.
I think arsenal has a bright future with the likes of cesc, vela, Walcott,nasri, denilson. Those are full national team starters in the future(except maybe denilson)
If Vela or Bendtner can’t compete for a place in the side then they should leave. This argument is back to front! I personally believe that the youngsters will thrive given the opportunity to displace some more experienced players.