I appreciate that Brunel, and tbh you are one of the more level-headed Gooners I know and an exception to the norm I hear, which is a blind faith that given X amount of time (note how other factors such as team mates, injury and coaching staff are never discussed), young player Y will 100% be "top class".
It's a dangerous self-fulfilling prophecy, whereby fans focus solely on the positives because they are desperate for their prediction to come true, which only reinforces their predetermined perspective that Young Player Y is developing nicely and on course to be "top class", until one day you wake up and realise Rob Holding is 26 and still ****e, to give one example.
Happened here with Harry Winks and I was as guilty as anyone in ignoring the fact that he just wasn't progressing for a good 3 seasons straight. I just ignored it outright because of a preconceived narrative that he'd broken through from the academy and had world class team mates and coaches to learn from, so was destined for great things. Turns out he wasn't.
And if I'm honest, I feel that from Arsenal fans more than i do from any others i know. It's hype that borders on desperation. The hype around Pepe. Around Saliba. Around Guendouzi. Fans were so desperate for them to succeed because there was no one else, they started seeing progress that simply wasn't there.
What you lack now isn't promising youngsters who may or may not reach that potential. Looking at your squad and the dearth of quality role models at the peak of their career is astonishing.
Leno, Bellerin, Mari, Chambers, Kolasinac, Soares, Xhaka, Elneny, Pepe...it's like a who's who of vastly overrated tripe.
Instead of blowing £130m on yet more young prospects, maybe you'd have been better off consolidating and doing what Liverpool did, signing 2 top class established players to form the new nucleus of the team.
