Guardiola falls into Wenger's trap

It's depressing, really depressing. Getting battered by Barcelona, as Arsenal were in the Champions League Quarter Finals, was partially mediated by the fact that Barca beat us on our own terms. They beat us by being young, smart and talented – the three things Wenger keeps on telling us we are.

And this season was supposed to be that pure footballing philosophy reach its heights, as a team largely developed out of the Barcelona youth academy went on to retain the European Cup.

Except they didn't, and that old enemy of beautiful football, José Mourinho, was the one who dealt the killing blow in a quite brilliant style.

It was interesting watching Barcelona tonight as an Arsenal fan – interesting and painful, as Guardiola fell into every trap that Wenger has been prone to since he turned to youth in 2006.

The basic failure of both Guardiola tonight, and Wenger over the past four seasons has been a reliance on youth. That's a reliance not in "Youth" in itself, but in believing that playing young players all together en masse will somehow improve them.

What we saw tonight, what we've seen over the last four seasons, is that it does not. In the bearpit of football at the very very highest level, Youth deployed together, dies together. And Inter, with only Wesley Sneijder in their team under the age of 26, swallowed them whole in a quite brilliant defensive display.

When Guardiola had to pick substitutes tonight, he went for Bojan and Zeffrens,when the out of favour Thierry Henry was an option, or his £60m centre forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic could have been kept on the field. But he didn't, he chose to deploy the full range of kids he'd brought through the Barca academy.

And it failed. And in failing, it dimmed the light of his best player, Lionel Messi, in just the same way Wenger's youth policy has sometimes blunted the effectiveness of Cesc Fabregas.

So tonight an old dream was extinguished, the dream of young players coming through the ranks together and taking on the world. And it was extinguished by an idea almost as old – that a band of veterans can fight, and scrap and want it more than any bunch of kids can, and that their vicious resolve can win. Inter Milan were like the Wild Bunch tonight, or the Dirty Dozen – old and brutal but brilliant. They deserved it, and if as seems likely, they can quell the threat of Arjen Robben and win the Champions League in May, what price then the return of The Special One to England? And what size his ego?

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