You will not believe me when I say this, and you will point to the past, but I see an incredible team in the making at Arsenal. By incredible I mean even greater than 07/08 pre-Eduardo, Invincibles or any of the double sides. Let me tell you why: It's mostly the youth. So before you mention Vela, Merida and Bendter I'll explain. For the first time you can look at our young players and see them performing at the top level. This isn't watching Vela score a hatrick against Sheffield United in the Carling Cup. This is watching an 18 year old Yennaris come on at half time against Manchester United and do an impressive job against Evra/Nani, some of the best attacking players (for their positions) on the planet. Or watching Szczesny make his league debut at Old Trafford and then his Champions League debut against Barcelona. If you compare the way our young players are being hyped now, to back then, you will see why. These are the players who are/were(injury) performing at the top level: Szczesny- See above Wilshere- Don't really need to explain Ramsey- I'll defend him if you ask me to. Chamberlain- Look at his CL debut and his first PL start Miquel- Has performed, out of position, and done a good job Yennaris-ditto Coquelin-ditto Frimpong- already a PL cult hero similar to Balotelli And the players who are promising but have yet to actually do anything at Arsenal: Wellington Silva Ryodinho (Ryo Miyaichi) Afobe Bartley Jenkinson (I rate him) Gibbs (too injured) Joel Campbell And this is without delving into the youth teams to mention everyone at that level. If you don't see it already then let me spell it out for you. We have NEVER had such a group of talent coming through into the first team. They're all practically the same age. Not only that, they have got a mentality that is superior to before. You only need to look at Wilshere, Szczesny, Frimpong and Chamberlain. None of them have been overawed when dropped into the deep end. I know that it's all well and good saying look at the future, but you need players for the here and now. And this is the mistake Wenger made in the past. Now he's keeping, and adding, older players to allow these youths to grow more comfortably. Last season he ran Wilshere into the ground because he had to perform like a mature player with an immature body. And I think that is why he has kept Rosicky, Arshavin and also brought in Benayoun, Santos and Arteta. It is again backfiring somewhat in that 2 of them are injured and another is so out of form I doubt he'd start for West Brom. This article hasn't flowed as well as I had hoped. But it seems to me that next year's team is capable of challenging for the title. We have three unbelievably talented young wingers in Chamberlain, Silva and Miyaichi. We have some of the best young strikers around in Campbell and Afobe. We have the best young midfielders in Wilshere, Ramsey, Coquelin, Frimpong (and we've got a fantastic generation in Gnarby, Toral and Olsson(all brought in last year) coming through. And our young defenders are proving themselves more talented than any of us thought. I'm not saying that we can provide a team to compete with just these youth players. What I am saying is that we have a generation that will produce far more top level players than we've ever seen. If only we spend the money in a few key areas, we will have an insane squad.
I agree, the talent coming through is fantastic. The issue is firstly getting them experience (I'd like to see Miguel & Yennaris & Ryo & Afobe out on loan for the rest of the season playing regularly) and secondly that many of them are 2 years away from playing for the first team properly. Silva had to be moved on to a different club and isn't playing at a high level at all at the moment. I'm optimistic that more players of higher quality will come through the youth set-up in the next couple of years and make the grade, less convinced they'll be world-beaters, and almost convinced that Wenger won't be around to see it happen!! He needed another 2 players to keep that top 4 place, and keep his job while waiting for the next gen of younsters to come through. He didn't buy, and now someone else will reap the benefits of his foresight.
This is a major problem. The next generation is coming through, but the current one is impossible to move on. I genuinely want to see Denilson, Squillaci, Almunia, Chamakh, Arshavin, Diaby all moved on in summer. Bendtner wants to go too, and Park I have no idea about. That's a BIG clear-out, but it's completely necessary at the moment.
Oh I have a question. Can we sell Arsene on before he walks away on a free? Just thinking out loud you understand pals .....
I'd keep denilson (depending on how he reacts when he returns with the fans etc) and Diaby denilson is actually a good player and useful in the squad, and diaby when fit is immense!
Jesus- bring back Denilson & Diaby. Why not Bendtner, Silvestre, Senderos. Whats Eboue doing? 'Send in the clowns time'
If I see Denilson in an Arsenal shirt again , im off to support Barnsley . That will be the last straw.
What is a Denilson? He's not a DM - not strong enough and can't tackle well enough, he's not an AM - doesn't have the vision, and he's not a CM - needs to be able to do both and dictate play. I just don't see what his point is.
Denilson is a good squad player, dont forget the other season he was shoved in midfield for the whole season due to injuries and never having played first team before and got us into the top 4 etc can put him in DM along side song/frimpong the ongs can do the tough taclking and denilson can keep the play going and get interceptions etc Many moan that he only passes 5/10 yards, but that's a really important job! look at gilberto of back in the day, he didn't do much just got in the way occasionally and played short balls to the more creative players, that's what denilson does, fills in that space between defense and attack, and plays the ball inbetween basically what Artetas been doing and making a great change and help to the team!
Arteta is far more aware of the defensive side then Denilson ever was. The amount of times Denilson failed to track midfield runners was unreal. Wilshere a player that never played a deep play making role in his career before last season came in and did a better job then Denilson.
Arteta is what 30? Denilson is 20 odd I wouldn't bet against denilson being alot better than arteta when he's his age Plus the fact Arteta came from everton more defensivly focused with defensive training etc most of his career, denilson has been at arsenal learning to attack most of his so obviously 10 extra years of defensive play/training he's going to be more aware And wilshere had a fair few dodgy moments if you think back! trying to dribble out of trouble in our area and conceding a goal against liverpool i think springs to mind And wilshere is just immense. That's like saying Oxo was **** against united because messi would of scored 6
One of Wenger's biggest errors was giving Denilson his trust. Sorry, Denilson never ever convinced me. Its tragic to know that we could have got Alonso but instead decided to stick with Denilson.
If the story is true the reason we never got Alonso is because Liverpool decided not to sell him when the deal to buy Gareth Barry from Villa fell through.In all honesty even though Denilson was rubbish for us last season,a couple of years ago he looked a half decent player
