Armand Traore

[selassie]

I don't rate him either. I wouldn't rule out what I asked becoming true however. Probably not though...I hope!

Yeah, Arsene has form for promoting from within. I do personally think he should be very careful about doing this now given our lack of success over the past few seasons. If Clichy is to go then he needs to be replaced properly.

For me, Traore is like Denilson or Vela...a player that has lost there way, I've never really rated Traore that high in the first place anyway.

[selassie]

Implementing a youth policy is a long term thing.....you need to understand only 10 players out of 40 will have a future at the club.....barcas team has only a few la masia cadets.It takes years to develop class players look at united for example, have they produced class players expect the beckham and co.

Yep, there's nothing wrong with implementing a youth policy and investing a lot of money in it. Where we've gone wrong is that we've invested far too much money & time in players who are not capable of the standard we require, that's basically the bottomline. Our academy since Arsene has been around has produced some gems, namely Ashley Cole & Jack Wilshere, it's just Arsene has also invested way too much time in players like Denilson, Eboue & Vela who have effectively come through our own "self created" youth system. I understand the model he (Arsene) has created, the problem has been letting go when it's not working, not letting go of the system but the player.

[Özim]

Why arent you including Theo, Cesc, Clichy, Bendtner, Djorou, Gibbs, James Harper, Steve Sidwell, Jay Bothroyd, Fabrice Muamba and so on?

Well Sidwell, Bothroyd, Muamba, Harper never made it at the club so I don't see how they are successes (they could only really be deemed successes if they make it with us or are considered good enough to play for us at the end of the day).

Theo was bought in reality, another club developed him and we paid big money to sign him.

Bendtner hasn't made it judging from his displays and people's views on him. For me though a true youth product is one that comes through the ranks, because AW's 10 year policy surely can't include players we effectively snatch from other clubs when they are 17/18 and thus have already learnt a lot from their home clubs.

Gibbs is a true youth who's come through the ranks, he's still to prove good enough though thus far, not convinced he's the real deal as a full back, as a winger maybe.

Cesc you could argue came through.

The 10 year plan represents home grown players who have come through the ranks from a young age though IMO, not players we signed from other clubs in their late teens.

[Flavs]

Well Sidwell, Bothroyd, Muamba, Harper never made it at the club so I don't see how they are successes (they could only really be deemed successes if they make it with us or are considered good enough to play for us at the end of the day).

Theo was bought in reality, another club developed him and we paid big money to sign him.

Bendtner hasn't made it judging from his displays and people's views on him. For me though a true youth product is one that comes through the ranks, because AW's 10 year policy surely can't include players we effectively snatch from other clubs when they are 17/18 and thus have already learnt a lot from their home clubs.

Gibbs is a true youth who's come through the ranks, he's still to prove good enough though thus far, not convinced he's the real deal as a full back, as a winger maybe.

Cesc you could argue came through, though I reckon Barca knew how good he was but were powerless to stop him, thus he'd already learnt his trade with them.

This post smells of so much shit i cant even begin to answer it to be honest

Good work

[dazthegooner]

The way i see it Wenger hasn't done much wrong with his youth policy apart from bringing too many in to quickly into the first team, we need a blend of youngsters and experience which hopefully he may now change.

[Özim]

This post smells of so much shit i cant even begin to answer it to be honest

Good work

Nice reply, fact is anyone can go out and buy other people's best youngsters, you don't need a youth policy to do that.

[dazthegooner]

Yep doesn't make much sense to me either...


Though agree with Ferguson (please forgive me) English clubs are not allowed enough time with the youngsters as apposed to other European nations.

But then again that comes with having nobody with any football backround running the English game, would you trust a plumber to conduct a triple heart bypass?

[Darth Vela]

Nice reply, fact is anyone can go out and buy other people's best youngsters, you don't need a youth policy to do that.

Yeah, anyone can buy up the talent but providing the right direction and development as well as giving them the chances in the team requires a specific policy and careful planning, that's the trick.

[Özim]

Yeah, anyone can buy up the talent but providing the right direction and development as well as giving them the chances in the team requires a specific policy and careful planning, that's the trick.

If you sign up top talented young players from other club they've got as much chance of making it at any other top club as they do with us. I'd argue they have a better chance with other top clubs due to being able to learn from top experienced players, whereas at ours they are surrounded by other kids.

There's examples out there, Bale, Rooney, Ronaldo to name but a few of them.

Honestly believe our youth policy is vastly overrrated, be interesting to see if our % success rate is acutally any better than other clubs.

West Ham seem to have the best youth policy around over the years.

A lot of these guys have been around since 2005-2006 over 5 years, how many have actually really improved that much since then?

[AKBapologist]

Would messieurs Song, Gibbs, Waclott, Ramnsey, Bendtner, Djuorru and Fabregas not be considered as products of our youth system?

I always thought we had an abnormally high number of players in the senior team who where brought here before 21. Depends on how you slice this hair I suppose.

Sure, we all (I think) agree that not enough experienced players are retained/purchased but to suggest that the youth system is failing the club is a little silly.

Selling Bendtner and Denilson alone for 18mill combined I think more than compensates us for wages and resources spent on them whilst they where here.