Looking at the current squad I'd say there are 4 different groups of players Wenger has brought into the team; 1. Youth Players 2. Young Players purchased 3, Unknown/Little Known of Players 4. Big Name Players YOUTH PLAYERS: *Wilshere *Frimpong *Szczency *Djourou *Gibbs Part of the credit must go down to our academy with Liam Brady but these players have no experienve around them to learn off! COMPARED TO: Cole YOUNG PLAYERS PURCHASED: * Diaby * Van Persie * Walcott * Ramsey * Song * Traore Van Persie has had 1 half of a season where he's been world class other than that he's been injury prone or out of form, Song has turned into a very good player but the rest have been terribly inconsistant COMPARED TO: Anelka, Veira, Cesc, Ljungberg UNKNOWN/LESSER KNOWN PLAYERS * Sagna * Vermaelen * Koscienly * Squillaci * Rosicky * Chamakh Very hit and miss....Sagna and Vermaelen walked straight into the side and played well from the get go but others have been injury prone, or simply not good enough COMPARED TO: Henry, Toure, Lauren, Nasri, Adebayor, Petit, Pires, Wiltord, Gilberto, Silvinhio BIG NAME/REPUTATION PLAYERS: * Arshavin Could Wenger be to blame for his performances regressing so rapidly...he was always a somewhat inconsistent performer at Zenit but now he can't even perform over 90 mins!! COMPARED TO: Kanu, Overmars (even Reyes did more than this lot), Campbell IN CONCLUSION Wenger has to realise the game has changed and with all the money flying around he isn't able to pull off the same tricks. But he did once have an eye with a player which he no longer appears to have which is either down to him or the quality of his scouting network. Pires @ 6M, Gilberto @ 5M, Ljungberg @ 3M where all great players but very affordable, why can't Wenger do that anymore? Man Utd signed Chicarito for 6M, Park 4M, Vidic 7M. Wenger has lost his touch and I doubt he'll get it back!!
Good post, a lot of thought gone into it. I agree completely. Disagree with Bobby though, Rosicky was not a big name signing, at all, he was a decent name, but not a big name, not many clubs were chasing his signature.
From wikipedia: In the 2006 World Cup finals, Rosický scored two goals in the Czech Republic's opening match on 12 June 2006 in a 3–0 victory over the United States, one of which was from 35 yards out and was nominated for the 2006 World Cup best goal. The Czech Republic went out at the World Cup in the group stages, with Rosický forced to move into the attack after injuries to both of the country's star strikers, Jan Koller and Milan Baroš. At the beginning of the 2006–07 season, Rosický was made captain of the Czech Republic national side, replacing the retiring Pavel Nedvěd, which he took up very well, greatly helping the Czech Republic qualify for Euro 2008. So he was captain for a very good national team and put in MOTM performances in a World Cup. I know alot of Arsenal fans were excited about him. Plus, Borussia Dortmund were a decent team back then. He was definitely well known before he signed for us, unlike the likes of Sagna, Vermaelen and Chamakh.
Times change tho, the older days we were the only ones really with such a big scouting system looking at all these players, but now everyone has the same/similar but twice as much money so sucess is harder to come by
