Arsenal Reserve players that you think will make it at Arsenal

[Kano]

When will people ever understand that a very low percentage of footballers ever make it into the first team of a premiership club.

We have brought on a fair few decent young players over the years, comparatively more than many of the big sides. The only difference being the Utd side of the early nineties, which was soley based on the cradle robbing they carried out before anyone else thought about it (a bit like we did with unknown French players when AW arrived).

For every "crop" I think it's right to expect one or two players make it to the first team, a few will be sold to sides further down the league, a few to the championship and a few to lower leagues. Other careers will just end. That's the way it is.

There are a few half decent youngsters knocking at the door, but playing reserve footy is not anywhere near playing first team. Eisfeld, Olsson, Toral and Gnabry have all impressed, and Miquel looks a player, but he still looks a little lightweight just now. Be great to see a couple of them come through....my money is on Eisfeld.

The blinkered, spoiled and idiotic thoughts of some fans are quite astonishing, though. We sometimes expect too much.

well exactly. it takes so many moments that are out of their hands to make it through to the first team squad, let alone to any sort of consistent level in the starting eleven. there is a book called 'outliers' by malcolm gladwell that takes it back to birth dates and how being born in the 'wrong' month can affect a kids sports progression because they can be placed in a group that is not as physically developed as those born a month or so ahead of them and from that point they miss draft picks etc.

man utd will look back in ten years and remember their golden youth period, as liverpool now do, ajax have and as barcelona also will in another 10-15 because quite simply no team is able to produce a constant supply of kids decade after decade. we had ours in the late 80s/90s and with the changes in the modern game it means the pressure for success forces the hands of managers to fill their teams with 'sure fire' players that can guarantee that, rather than chancing their arm with untried youngsters.

i think, tbf, more could have been made of the kids we had under our wings in the past 5-6 years but for whatever reason that didn't take place and i don't think we are the only team culpable of doing so either.

[Özim]

When will people ever understand that a very low percentage of footballers ever make it into the first team of a premiership club.

We have brought on a fair few decent young players over the years, comparatively more than many of the big sides. The only difference being the Utd side of the early nineties, which was soley based on the cradle robbing they carried out before anyone else thought about it (a bit like we did with unknown French players when AW arrived).

For every "crop" I think it's right to expect one or two players make it to the first team, a few will be sold to sides further down the league, a few to the championship and a few to lower leagues. Other careers will just end. That's the way it is.

There are a few half decent youngsters knocking at the door, but playing reserve footy is not anywhere near playing first team. Eisfeld, Olsson, Toral and Gnabry have all impressed, and Miquel looks a player, but he still looks a little lightweight just now. Be great to see a couple of them come through....my money is on Eisfeld.

The blinkered, spoiled and idiotic thoughts of some fans are quite astonishing, though. We sometimes expect too much.

One thing you've disregarded is the amount of time and money we've invested in the youths, we've spent huge amounts on poaching players from all around the globe and the youth policy was basically our main focus for quite a few years, no other club has been as focussed on this as us, in that respect the returns have been pretty poor....we're not just some other club with a standard youth policy so you can't really compare us to that.


Now I'm not expecting miracles, but when you base your whole club on a youth policy to deliver success it's fair to say you're expecting rather more from it that your average youth policy.

[Grebbo]

Yeah LDG tbf all we've heard for the past ten years is how amazing our youth teams are and how they'll enable us to compete with the best.

Turns out they weren't amazing and we're not competing.

[Gervinho's Forehead]

Yeah LDG tbf all we've heard for the past ten years is how amazing our youth teams are and how they'll enable us to compete with the best.

Turns out they weren't amazing and we're not competing.

[Kano]

That’s pretty selective though isn’t it? If the manager is labelled as a complete and utter buffoon by most of you guys above, then surely that would have had a massive impact on their development.

Right?

[Gervinho's Forehead]

When you put so much of your money and resources into a the youth project as much as we have you would expect at least some sort of return the fact we haven't seen one merely compounds wenger's buffoon status.

[Kano]

that's not what i asked. i'm saying that the blame should shift from the players being merely 'shit' to the manager taking the majority of the blame.

[LDG]

One thing you've disregarded is the amount of time and money we've invested in the youths, we've spent huge amounts on poaching players from all around the globe and the youth policy was basically our main focus for quite a few years, no other club has been as focussed on this as us, in that respect the returns have been pretty poor....we're not just some other club with a standard youth policy so you can't really compare us to that.


Now I'm not expecting miracles, but when you base your whole club on a youth policy to deliver success it's fair to say you're expecting rather more from it that your average youth policy.

No Zimm.

We've invested no more or less than other clubs, apart from spending bigger on players like Walcott, Chamberlain and Ramsey....not really project youth, more gambles I would say.

It's only more relevant because we've relied on some of project youth them to make up part of the team, give them more chance (see league cup) and it was a means of getting by for a bit....which trophies aside, has still kept us within the top four teams in the sodding country.

Niether I, nor anybody else has condoned this as a long term solution, nor something which a club should be based upon. I've always said you need experience.

What I said above, still remains correct. Otherwise we wouldn't have Jack, Gibbs or Szczeny as regulars in the first team (like them or loathe them).

And we wouldn't have had Fabregas or Song either....which according to many were too good to lose.

I might add that we have made much more money out of selling our youth projects than what we have spent....so your argument is pretty poor.

What we need to do was add experience to the Fabregas side....then we'd have gone places.

[LDG]

When you put so much of your money and resources into a the youth project as much as we have you would expect at least some sort of return the fact we haven't seen one merely compounds wenger's buffoon status.

Yeah, we only got a few pence from the sale of Fabregas and Song

[GP]