I'll concede and accept saying "nothing has come of their careers" was a poor choice of words. What would be more accurate to say is that neither have fulfilled their potential considering how many opportunities Wenger has given them In the case of Ramsey, his leg injury was clearly a huge stunt to his growth but he seems to lack the discipline to reach his potential. Walcott is stealing a living. He has made a career based mostly off of hype. He's had 1/2 good seasons and has a few good games here and there. 10 years he has had. How much longer should Arsenal continue trying to make it happen with him? I can't argue there but clearly those players who did leave knew something we didn't or they were all just greedy mercenaries? I don't see how our financial position at the time should correlate with such a weak mentality we have shown and continue to show. It's a tired excuse. Lack of financial muscle didn't lead to our collapse in the 07/08 season. Lack of financial muscle didn't lead to our defeat in the Carling Cup final. Yes, we have won two FA cups recently which is great and shows progress but the same frailties that have been at the club for the past decade remains. I agree, three of which who left. Let's see if Bellerin ends up staying or leaving for a "bigger club". True, I don't expect all players to make it but why waste time and persist with them for years and years when they are clearly duds. A lot of managers get it wrong but Wenger's Pride refuses to accept when he does **** up and it's at the detriment to the club. Don't believe me? I give you exhibit a: Flamini. And look at how much deadwood we only recently got rid of.
I agree with aspects of most of what you've written though I disagree with Walcott, in terms of home grown players I think he is one of the better ones available. He is worth a squad place for sure though I wouldn't be against a better starting player!
Ramsey and Walcott would be snapped up by our rivals if we let them go and for good reason. Both are quality. World beaters?..probably not but good players to have nontheless.
Ramsey has been at Arsenal for 8 years now and in that time, he's shown his quality for about 1 and a half seasons - part of the 2009/10 season before he broke his leg and his obvious breakthrough season in 2013/14. But apart from that, he has been mediocre/poor and this season especially, his positional sense, vision and reading of the game have been very underwhelming for a player who just over two years ago we were labelling as the 'complete midfielder'. I reckon we should still persist with him because he's shown what he's capable of in the past, but if he continues this form into next season, we should consider selling because 1 and a half good seasons in nearly a decade at one club wouldn't be justification for keeping him on. He's 26 this year as well, so these should be his best years coming up. This will show whether he was a flash in the pan or not. Walcott is very frustrating because there are some games where he looks unplayable and then there are other games where he's so bad, we may as well be playing with 10 men. The problem is we've been saying this for 10 years now and he still doesn't look like he's improved in all aspects of his game. That being said, I reckon he should be kept on purely because his pace and finishing is an asset. I also feel that he's been mismanaged by Wenger and that if he goes to a rival side, he would blossom. Whether he should be a regular starter or not is another question, but as a squad player, he deserves to be kept on. Chamberlain I'm leaning towards being sold, but I reckon he needs a good loan spell somewhere. Whilst he hasn't progressed in the past 5 years, he is still only 22 years old. He needs a proper run of games in one position and that can only be achieved with a loan-spell at another Premiership club. As far as Wilshere is concerned, last chance saloon. If he gets injured again for a lengthy period of time, he will never get a consistent run of games at the club in his life. The English Diaby. Needs to be flogged off if he doesn't prove he can stay fit over the season. His age is the only reason why I'm willing to be lenient. Jenkinson has potential, but I don't know if he'll settle for being second fiddle to Bellerin having been a regular-starter for West Ham over the past two seasons. I wouldn't be against him being sold so long as we bring in a proper right-back. Overall, our English Core that we signed on long-term deals at the end of 2012 haven't progressed in the way we would have wanted or expected.
