You have different approaches to building a football team but which do you think is the most successful? Building a team using players you have developed yourself, some from your own youth academies others signed from other youth sides at a young age (16-18) e.g. Arsenal. Buying a team of more experienced individuals and relying less on youth, e.g. Manchester City. A mixture of both, e.g. Manchester United Arsenal's approach, so far, doesn't seem to have worked. Not in terms of winning trophies at least. Man City have undoubtably improved and have so far won the FA Cup but it remains to be seen whether they have long term success. Manchester United have, ofcourse, had a lot of success with their approach.
Well it's a silly question in my mind. It's going to take an almighty talented bunch of 18-24 year olds that make up a squad to challenge for honours. City's approach will eventually work because someone is going to have a brainwave there and think, "what if we try to have a settled team and squad?" The age doesn't matter. What does is the combination of players that get the best out of the team. If you think of the Barcelona team, they aren't really that young. What they do have is lots of experience playing with each other and at the highest level that enables them to play and play effective football.
They might not be that young but the majority of them came up through the youth ranks at Barcelona rather than all being brought in from different clubs and stuck together. So their "philosophy" has been more similar to the Arsenal one. I wasn't asking about age, I was asking about whether it is better to rely souly on a players that the you have developed yourself, or to buy in players who are already at a certain level, or a mixture of both.
I don't think this current Arsenal team have a lot of youth team players have they? The likes of their keeper, most of their defence, Nasri, Arshavin, Gervinho and RVP weren't exactly youth team players when they signed but I understand your point now. But like I said, it's going to take a ridiculously talented group of youth team players to be a core for successful squad. One can argue that we had that with Fergie's fledglings and the current Barcelona squad has almost three sets of youth squads, first the likes of Xavi and Puyol, then Iniesta and Valdez and the youngest with Messi and Pedro. But with the youth, there is always the need for the right experience and talent brought into the club. Not just for the team but for future generations as well.
Our current team is actually younger than "Fergie's Fledglings"! So much for the rival fans who taunted us about our ageing squad
And yet, this new much younger squad, even with the likes of Young, Smalling and Jones that haven't been at the club still know the ethos of the club and the mantra of the belief that we always score.
young players need older players to develop their games and have them to look up to in tough times, likewise the older players often need the energy and enthusisasm of the younger players, its a nice symbiotic relationship. Though of course there can be exceptions in rare circumstances with exceptionally mature and tallented individuals e.g. the United youth team of 1992
I see you have your tin foil hat. Well your above comment has ensured you no longer have an opinion worth taking notice of. Stock up on beans and dried foods nutjob, this is gonna be a crazy ride.
Truth hurts doesn't it. I'm proud not to be a Man U Fan.At least us at arsenal have to try and win the hard way, with the f.a. willing to suspend our players just for sneezing.
Sorry I dont speak ******. Care to provide any evidence of your bullshit or shall I just continue to take the piss out of you and all other Arsenal fans with your mentality?
You claim the truth hurts for us, yet you can't accept when one of your dirty players deservedly gets punished. That tin hat is firmly wedged on isn't it?
I can accept. I never said that frimpong didn't deserve to be sent off, he did. You can gloat, and insult me as much as you like, i know, for a fact, that when the ship is sinking, we gooners stay with the ship, even if it means drowning, whereas the majority of you man u fans would abandon ship at the first sight of water leaking in.
I'm thinking about all the **** rooney gets away with. If that was RVP, the FA would have him locked in a cage, away from football, for months. Alex Song gets a 3 match ban for doing something that nearly all players do, stamp on someone when the ref isn't looking. And don't you tell me that you're players don't do it, because they do.
Ah would we now. Lets use some facts and evidence to make you mentally challenged? 1974 - Man Utd relegated 1975 - Man Utd highest attendance in England 1992 - Man Utd continue to have the highest average attendence despite now going 26 years with no title. Evidence seems to suggest that United will continue to have the biggest fan base regardless of success or lack of it. While over the years I have seen Leeds, Liverpool, Chelsea, City, West Ham and other clubs who question our support fail ot fill their grounds on many many occassions. Infact only Arsenal seen to continue to fill their ground besides us.
Okay, maybe you would stay, but it is proven that Manchester United have more plastic fans than any other club in world football. I know people who claim to support your team who don't have the foggiest idea about football. I live in a town (caerphilly) that predominantly support Man U and Liverpool, and the only arsenal fans i know do actually love the club, and know their football.
Ofcourse we have more plastic fans than any other club. We are the biggest, most famous and one of the most successful clubs on Earth, that is always going to attract some plastic fans.
And of course, our higher attendance than almost any club in spite of 70% ticket price rises over the past six years, combined with our ability to keep our attendances high even when we were in Div 2, also proves that we have more loyal fans than any other club. Happy days P.S. Remind me again, who is the only player in footballing history to ever have received a suspension from the FA purely for swearing on the football field? Based on Cowboys' comments, I'm guessing it can only possibly have been an Arsenal player cos they are the only ones badly treated...
