Summer Transfer Misery and Recriminations.

[Power n Glory]

why are we expecting world class players to come out of the academy. they just need to produce good players that can play for arsenal. I always think of a world class player as someone who could get into any side in the world. In my mind that would only be Ozil at Arsenal. So therefore we don't need loads of world class players.

Also, we’ve invested a lot of time and effort into the youth project unlike other Top 4 teams. It’s been our main strategy whilst our rivals would spend big to replace and not promote from within.

If you remember when the Prem had gone all anti foreign and pundits kept pounding Wenger for not producing enough English National players besides Cole, he said in 10 years they’d be thanking him. The Academy was supposed to produce those players and we were supposed to see the first batch of stars because we had guys like Wilshere from 9 years old. Wenger’s generation of kids that’s he’d be able to oversee from kids to adults. Besides being good enough for Arsenal, they were supposed to be good enough for England and that’s not the case either.

[Kano]

Lesbian leaves Citeh to go to Seville.

Sissoko for £30m to Spuds?

Luiz to Chavs for £38m?

Nice not to have a dog in this last minute scramble for once.

[Kano]

And Chambers has rocked up at Middlesboro for the rest of the season.

[Özim]

Name a world class player that has come out of the big four in this country over the past ten years? It's a symptom of the PL money spent every summer.

There's one difference, none of those clubs have focussed on youth, that's been our primary goal, indeed when Wenger arrived he had a 10 year plan to develop quality young players.

If we signed world class players like the other clubs do it might not be a problem but we don't.

[Özim]

why are we expecting world class players to come out of the academy. they just need to produce good players that can play for arsenal. I always think of a world class player as someone who could get into any side in the world. In my mind that would only be Ozil at Arsenal. So therefore we don't need loads of world class players.

Why, because that's been our primary focus, I disagree you do need a decent amount of world class players, they're are the ones that win you matches.

[I am invisible]

Cech/Ospina/Martinez
Bellerin/
Monreal/Gibbs
Koscielny/Mustafi/Holding/Gabriel(supposedly back in 3/4 weeks from now)/Merts
Coquelin/Xhaka/Elneny
Ozil/Ramsey/Cazorla
Walcott/Ox
Sanchez/Iwobi/The Jeff
Giroud/Perez/Wellbeck


Bellerin back up is the only concern if Debuchy leaves but add in a couple of wild cards and the numbers are there. We could debate the quality all day long but we've got rid of some deadwood in Flamini, Arterta, Rosicky, potentially Wilshere and Chambers too.

It's as solid a squad as we've had for a while, tbf - I'd happily upgrade a few more areas over the next couple of windows, but at least there's no gaping holes there for once.

Plenty of flexibility too, if we have to get creative - Monreal, Mustafi, Coq, Cazorla, Ramsey, Özil, Walcott, Ox, Sanchez, Iwobi, Jeff, Perez and Welbeck can all play 2 or 3 roles (to varying degrees of cometence).

And finally - finally! - no more temptation to fall back on Flaminis and Artetas, and no more waiting around for Wilsheres and Welbecks and Rosickys to be available.

I think my main gripe with the summer's work isn't the ins and outs, or even how late some of the deals have been done - it's that the players / team that we knew we were going to be starting with didn't look physically or tactically ready. Even now, 3 games in, they don't look like they can comfortably last 90 minutes! If you're going to leave your business late in the hope for getting better deals then that's fine, but at least make sure that the players we do have are match fit and able to do a job while we wait...

[Özim]

Cech/Ospina/Martinez
Bellerin/
Monreal/Gibbs
Koscielny/Mustafi/Holding/Gabriel(supposedly back in 3/4 weeks from now)/Merts
Coquelin/Xhaka/Elneny
Ozil/Ramsey/Cazorla
Walcott/Ox
Sanchez/Iwobi/The Jeff
Giroud/Perez/Wellbeck


Bellerin back up is the only concern if Debuchy leaves but add in a couple of wild cards and the numbers are there. We could debate the quality all day long but we've got rid of some deadwood in Flamini, Arterta, Rosicky, potentially Wilshere and Chambers too.

I agree we got rid of deadwood, we just haven't really supplemented the squad with top quality that could make the difference, still think we look particularly lightweight up front.

Centre back and central midfield and perhaps goalkeeping are the areas we're well covered in and look decent, other areas I'm not so sure about, think down the wings we're lacking somewhat and probably going to have to play the square pegs round hole game again.

Perfect summer would have been a CB (check) and top striker and perhaps a goalscoring winger, but the striker was the big one for me, I think we needed more goals and thus a couple goalscorers added to the team would have made us both more unpredictable and better.

Our summer hasn't been too bad all in all, but I don't find any of those signings really exciting or what I would call matchwinners, CB fine, Xhaka really not too bothered about this one and Perez, hopefully turns out to be decent, let's be honest if you'd asked everyone who they would have signed in the summer how many would have identified any of the players we've signed as the ones they wanted, I'd hedge a bet at very few, that's kinda what Wenger likes though, he generally steers away from the more established players.

[The Emirates Gallactico]

Name a world class player that has come out of the big four in this country over the past ten years? It's a symptom of the PL money spent every summer.

Was going to post the same thing before you did. There have been barely any English worldies the past decade ..... Rooney (and that was only for a few years) is the only one the springs to mind really. I think Shaw and Sterling (with some Pep coaching) could reach those levels though.

It's a problem with English players and general coaching rather than any specific academy system it seems.

Bellerin back up is the only concern if Debuchy leaves but add in a couple of wild cards and the numbers are there.

Not to do a Wenger but don't forget that Mustafi is a perfectly capable Rightback and has played there numerous times for Germany & Valencia when needed. In fact, I'm sure that was a factor in Wenger deciding to go in for him.

[Kano]

There's one difference, none of those clubs have focussed on youth, that's been our primary goal, indeed when Wenger arrived he had a 10 year plan to develop quality young players.

If we signed world class players like the other clubs do it might not be a problem but we don't.

Apart from Utd I can't think of another team in recent memory in the UK that has developed the all mysterious 'world class' talent. There has been a huge emphasis on youth in terms of the academies but pressure to have instant success has increased, meaning younger players rarely get a chance to show what they can do. Look at Chelsea. They've won the FA Youth Cup 5 out of the last 7 years, so talent has to be there and how many come through to the first team at that club? We tried to put focus on youth for 4/5 years previously but ultimately, could Wenger have afforded to take gambles on more players from the youth set up and risk worse performances in the league and all the pressure that comes with it? I don't think he could. Young players probably get more of a chance here than they do at Citeh or Chavs. Utd only turned to kids last season and struck lucky because of the injuries they suffered. Maureen has come in and knocked that on the head straight away. Liverpool still give youngsters a shot and Spuds have mostly because of the financial restrictions of the stadium.

[Özim]

Apart from Utd I can't think of another team in recent memory in the UK that has developed the all mysterious 'world class' talent. There has been a huge emphasis on youth in terms of the academies but pressure to have instant success has increased, meaning younger players rarely get a chance to show what they can do. Look at Chelsea. They've won the FA Youth Cup 5 out of the last 7 years, so talent has to be there and how many come through to the first team at that club? We tried to put focus on youth for 4/5 years previously but ultimately, could Wenger have afforded to take gambles on more players from the youth set up and risk worse performances in the league and all the pressure that comes with it? I don't think he could. Young players probably get more of a chance here than they do at Citeh or Chavs. Utd only turned to kids last season and struck lucky because of the injuries they suffered. Maureen has come in and knocked that on the head straight away. Liverpool still give youngsters a shot and Spuds have mostly because of the financial restrictions of the stadium.

Southampton for one, West Ham haven't done badly either and Spurs as you mention. There's a few teams out there, just feel that considering how much emphasis we put on youth, our return has been pretty poor, Gnabry is the latest in a long line of failed young players (admitttedly he's not from our academy).

Maybe we should stop focussing on kids and just sign world class players if this is all we're going to produce, our kids come with all the hype and none of the talent, I don't get the impression our scouts (who look for kids) are particularly good at it, we seem to miss out on all the top young players and get left with fairly average ones.