Arsenal Reserve players that you think will make it at Arsenal

[Marc Overmars]

Looking at the type of person he is though, I find it very easy to believe why he's one of Big Man's minions.

[Kano]

Rooney was bought by Man U at 17 and he was already some player, I personally think that by the age of 17 you're already well on your way...you can see the real potential....all the top players have shown it, the likes of Messi, Ronaldo etc they may have been inconsistent but the basis of their game was already developed, they just need some games and some, quality experience around them as well.

you are picking out absolutely exceptional players that are phenomenons in their own right, when in a vast majority of cases, players are not at that level by 17. a title winning team like utd had great players like giggs, scholes etc who were of course very good by the time (but i'd suggest closer to 'the norm') they got to utd but in comparison, your messi's/ronaldo's would have been even further developed.

i agree that getting in a player at 17 means they are well on their way but a ridiculously high percentage never make it past youth teams and end up in the lower leagues somewhere. at a place like arsenal, under someone like wenger, the requirement was to learn a far more technical style (although now it is far more normal in this country) and that required tutelage away from what they had before arriving.

either way, we both agree that it didn't work out as planned and that is because too much was put on their shoulders too soon, whilst those around them were in no position to help.

[Grebbo]

We offered Ashley Cole £75k pw and then went back on our word. He had every right to fuck off.

Cole is a douchebag of the highest order but we fucked with him and he told us where to go. He did the right thing.

[Boss]

Cole, however, was also involved in a transfer saga with Chelsea. He was found guilty of making contact with league rivals Chelsea over a possible move, without informing Arsenal. He was fined £100,000 by the Premier League on 2 June 2005 for a tapping-up meeting at a hotel in January 2005. Cole, his agent Jonathan Barnett, the Chelsea manager José Mourinho and chief executive Peter Kenyon were present at the meeting. An appeal in August 2005 did not reject the guilty verdict, but his fine was reduced to £75,000. Chelsea were also fined £300,000 and Mourinho was fined £200,000, reduced on appeal in August 2005 to £75,000. Barnett's licence was suspended for 18 months and he was also fined £100,000.

On 18 July 2005, Cole signed a one-year extension to his contract with Arsenal, but just a year later departed from the club in acrimonious circumstances. On 15 July 2006, Cole launched a verbal attack on Arsenal; in his autobiography, quoted in The Sun, he claimed that the Arsenal board had treated him as a "scapegoat" and that they had "fed him to the sharks" over the tapping-up affair while Arsenal, from their part, insisted that they were legally obliged to punish Cole for his illegal contact with Chelsea. Cole was deliberately left out of Arsenal's 2006–07 team photograph,[15] fuelling press speculation that he would leave.

Have you guys forgotten all of the above? No way we could have kept that filth after what he did.

[Marc Overmars]

Time for Cashley to come home?

[-Xs-]

Cole is scum, but unlike at the time, I can't absolve our board in the matter, given what we know about them now.