I'm not sure that's fair - I mean Wilshire is miles ahead of Davis, and while Adams and Rocastle were amazing, I'd argue that Adams is (like Terry) a once in a generation player, not one our academy will be expected to churn out every few years. I'd say Oxo and Walcott are already ahead of Thomas, but the difference is that now there are more WC players in the league and much more foreign players, certainly top class foreign players, which means English/British players don't stand out. Years ago merely good English players like Redknapp and Parlour would play every game for a club and be loved as one of the teams best players, these days teams have players like Silva, Toure, Cazorla and Hazard who are among the very best in the world, and so the crop of English players these days are in their shadow - but doesn't mean they are any worse than the ones years ago. note - I loved Parlour and the 'Romford Pele' when they played at the club.
Good post Smirnoff but I disagree with you about Wilshire and Davis. Davis had class and style, attributes sadly lacking in Wilshire's demeanour.
Sorry I was referring to our youth academy products. If you're including players from other sources, then we are doing well.
Southampton The ref didn't see the incident at the time and Davis was first ever player to be convicted on video evidence.If I remember correctly you weren't banned for matches at the time but were banned for weeks and Davis was banned for something like eight weeks
As were ITN from Highbury for a while, cause it is news footage that was used. Graham didn't like that apparently.
I remember that incident, at the time it was a really long ban, but looking back he probably got off quite lightly
I looked on Wiki and apparently he was given a 9 match ban but I could have sworn back then you were banned for weeks rather than matches
I'm pretty sure it was a time orientated ban rather than games. I remember at the time thinking 'they have thrown the book at him'. But to be honest, if a player did that now and broke an opponents jaw, he'd probably get a much longer ban and might even get sacked by the club.
For the life of me I don't understand why chambers isn't playing in the reserve team at CB he doesn't get into the match squad so why is he not getting experience in the reserves
It's only been 2 reserve games, and one was for an U-18 game, are first team players even eligible to play in the U-18 games?
M And what was Cockerill's role in this? Winding him up, maybe using racist language, slagging off his girlfriend or wife? Reminds me of an incident a few years back involving Le Saux and Fowler where Le Saux almost took off Fowler's head. On further investigation it emerged that Fowler was making homosexual comments towards LeSaux with the result being that Fowler got a lengthier ban.
Think he was just being rested and Wenger didn't want to over burn a young player because he had played a lot of games for us during the first half of the season.
Chambers is quality and is the future successor to big Mertz. He can play at right back, but for me, he is a natural centre back with his size and strength. One thing he has got that big Mert hasn't is genuinely good ball control and distribution. He is skilful enough to take it out of defence.
