Club confirm Sven Mislintat leaving Arsenal on February 8

[L3T5 PL4Y]

And also, you can't give players no matter who a free run or a straight up path to success. If the last British core has taught us a lesson is it doesn't work like that. The players have to be good enough, produce first and earn that place in the team.

 

[VancouverCanuck]

After all these years, we finally have more structure in place. And we are seeing good results from it already. Dortmund is team that has great success in this department and we are following exactly the same formula, not to mention recruiting their staff as well.

I don’t know who deserves the credit. Not popular opinion here but I feel Gazidis was probably the one making this decision. I’m sure Wenger didn’t want this. So glad Wenger didn’t have final say in the matter at the end.

 

[Toby]

It would be great if we invested in "squad players" that are young with a huge potential upside. I suspect these links to Kai Havertz could be indicative of that sort of thinking. One thing I'd like to see is spending big on world class prospects in midfield and defense. Like if we went out of our way to get in Frenkie De Jong and De Ligt ahead of the big boys. That would give us an edge and build a very competitive squad increasing our level of ambition. If someone comes in and pays through the roof later on then that's great business.

Guys like Havertz, De Jong and de Ligt aren't squad players. They are international top talents costing ridiculous sums of money you can't spend on squad players. They are all minimum 50m. Kai Havertz or De Jong as squad players

 

[Batman]

99-03 born generation at Hale End looks incredibly strong at the moment. Can still recruit IMO but there must be a pathway for this lot, they are immensely talented, more than people realize.

There's always a pathway for you if you're good enough. The first team has to take priority. We can't be worried about blocking maybes. You think Wenger was ever giving a thought to blocking Fabregas when we were going 49 unbeaten? Not a chance. Cesc was just so brilliant that he forced his way in and took over the reigns a couple of years later. There are enough games for the kids to play to prove their worth without declining to strengthen and risking them failing to meet the challenge.

 

[L3T5 PL4Y]

Guys like Havertz, De Jong and de Ligt aren't squad players. They are international top talents costing ridiculous sums of money you can't spend on squad players. They are all minimum 50m. Kai Havertz or De Jong as squad players

Well, they'd be competing for a starting spot rather than go straight to the line up. Only De Ligt would go straight in. Unless by squad player you think they'd be just there to ride the bench in case of emergency.

 

[Toby]

Unless by squad player you think they'd be just there to ride the bench in case of emergency.

In the context of my initial post commenting on the obvious quality gap between Wenger and Mislintat recruits and the reason for that I was exactly speaking about this kind of player. Squad, role and rotation players. Welbeck, Lichtsteiner, Elneny, Perez and guys like them. You need such players at every club. Ferguson's United is a prime example for this. Only in FIFA or at City can you have a bench stacked with 50m rated youngsters. In this world De Jong would be a 80m Ramsey replacement, so a regular starter, and by no means a squad player.

You have nailed on starters (first XI), a couple of guys competing for a starting spot (Iwobi, Mhkitaryan, Leno, Kola) and squad players (Elneny, Lichtsteiner, Holding, Martinez, Welbeck) plus a few youngsters. Squad and youth players are basically 3rd and 4th choice...In no world will guys like Havertz join for millions to ride the bench. When talking about transfers of that profile you are talking about transfers for the first XI.

 

[Mark Tobias]

Only in FIFA or at City can you have a bench stacked with 50m rated youngsters.

 

[L3T5 PL4Y]

In the context of my initial post commenting on the obvious quality gap between Wenger and Mislintat recruits and the reason for that I was exactly speaking about this kind of player. Squad, role and rotation players. Welbeck, Lichtsteiner, Elneny, Perez and guys like them. You need such players at every club. Ferguson's United is a prime example for this. Only in FIFA or at City can you have a bench stacked with 50m rated youngsters. In this world De Jong would be a 80m Ramsey replacement, so a regular starter, and by no means a squad player.

You have nailed on starters (first XI), a couple of guys competing for a starting spot (Iwobi, Mhkitaryan, Leno, Kola) and squad players (Elneny, Lichtsteiner, Holding, Martinez, Welbeck) plus a few youngsters. Squad and youth players are basically 3rd and 4th choice...In no world will guys like Havertz join for millions to ride the bench. When talking about transfers of that profile you are talking about transfers for the first XI.

Pretty sure Havertz will be happy to join and will end up riding the bench for a while no matter what he costs. But yeah Frenkie and De Ligt would make the line up soon.

Squad players in that respect under Ferguson were a different thing and they weren't exactly their to ride the bench. You can have 3/4 players like that but they have to be competitive and now as we're seeing with Emery there are few nailed on starters. But yeah the squad will evolve and be built in his image and a starting line up will begin to emerge at some point. The thing is the squad is still evolving and the greater level of talent we could acquire to keep pushing ahead the better.

 

[Mark Tobias]

The thing is the squad is still evolving and the greater level of talent we could acquire to keep pushing ahead the better.

This is the whole beauty of this transition. Everybody said we'd be United 2.0 but we haven't. We've held our own and, as you point out, more is to come.

 

[L3T5 PL4Y]

This is the whole beauty of this transition. Everybody said we'd be United 2.0 but we haven't. We've held our own and, as you point out, more is to come.

Yep.

And for all the **** Gazidis gets, he has set us up real good. You really couldn't have asked for more to be made out of the situation we were in.

 

[Mraven]

There's always a pathway for you if you're good enough. The first team has to take priority. We can't be worried about blocking maybes. You think Wenger was ever giving a thought to blocking Fabregas when we were going 49 unbeaten? Not a chance. Cesc was just so brilliant that he forced his way in and took over the reigns a couple of years later. There are enough games for the kids to play to prove their worth without declining to strengthen and risking them failing to meet the challenge.

That sounds all good for Fabregas and Wilshere, but not everyone are coming out of the youth ranks with a bang. We cannot not afford loosing out on talents like Chelsea did with Salah and De Bruyne. Wenger has always had a good balance of incorporating youth in the senior team

 

[Rex Stone]

You think Wenger was ever giving a thought to blocking Fabregas when we were going 49 unbeaten? Not a chance. Cesc was just so brilliant that he forced his way in and took over the reigns a couple of years later. There are enough games for the kids to play to prove their worth without declining to strengthen and risking them failing to meet the challenge.

Isn’t that exactly why we sold Vieira? Because he was blocking Cesc?

 

[Impact]

Fabregas is also why Wenger decided not to sign Carrick.

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport...nal-Arséne-wenger-autobiography-a8577421.html

 

[Mark Tobias]

Isn’t that exactly why we sold Vieira? Because he was blocking Cesc?

Doubt that.. We were moving to the stadium build era and Wenger's hand was being forced to sell players. No sane man would break up a team which went unbeaten so quickly without pressure from somewhere.

 

[Mark Tobias]

That sounds all good for Fabregas and Wilshere, but not everyone are coming out of the youth ranks with a bang. We cannot not afford loosing out on talents like Chelsea did with Salah and De Bruyne. Wenger has always had a good balance of incorporating youth in the senior team

Does Emery not? We've had Guendouzi play in every fixture. AMN would have had a run if not for injury. ESR seen game time this season.
What more do people want? Risk making top 4 because of some maybes.

I think Wenger's 'build from youth' era has warped people's perceptions of this youth thing. How often do a club really see a Harry Kane come through their ranks. 9/10 the player moves on anyway seeking game time. It is a cut throat game and we've been out of the top 4 for 2 years now. We need to get back there before we start p!ssing about with maybes

 

[Rex Stone]

Doubt that.. We were moving to the stadium build era and Wenger's hand was being forced to sell players. No sane man would break up a team which went unbeaten so quickly without pressure from somewhere.

When Cesc Fabregas was 18, 19, I would play him in a 4-4-2 with Patrick Vieira and I saw it did not work. Then I had the decision to make about letting Patrick go, because Gilberto Silva and Vieira worked, Fabregas and Silva worked, but I could not play Fabregas and Vieira. But Fabregas was 19 and if he did not play I knew he would want to go, so we risked destroying everything, all the work we had put into this player.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/f...s-fascinating-meeting-Arsenal-manager--I.html

 

[Mark Tobias]

When Cesc Fabregas was 18, 19, I would play him in a 4-4-2 with Patrick Vieira and I saw it did not work. Then I had the decision to make about letting Patrick go, because Gilberto Silva and Vieira worked, Fabregas and Silva worked, but I could not play Fabregas and Vieira. But Fabregas was 19 and if he did not play I knew he would want to go, so we risked destroying everything, all the work we had put into this player.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/f...s-fascinating-meeting-Arsenal-manager--I.html

Perhaps that was the case but I don't see him stating "Look we're broke now and we need to sell our big players to recoup for this massive stadium endeavour" either...

Either way, the whole bit about "we risked destroying everything" tells you that the plans had changed and we were beginning to focus on youth so as to fund the plans. No club would take this decision otherwise....

 

[Rex Stone]

Perhaps that was the case but I don't see him stating "Look we're broke now and we need to sell our big players to recoup for this massive stadium endeavour" either...

Either way, the whole bit about "we risked destroying everything" tells you that the plans had changed and we were beginning to focus on youth so as to fund the plans. No club would take this decision otherwise....

This was a few years after the fact and he’s made no bones in the past about having to break even for a long spell of his at the club. Don’t think he’d make up a cover story.

I mean he says it pretty explicitly for me there, he says the same thing as well about Wilshere in the article.

 

[Mark Tobias]

This was a few years after the fact and he’s made no bones in the past about having to break even for a long spell of his at the club. Don’t think he’d make up a cover story.

I mean he says it pretty explicitly for me there, he says the same thing as well about Wilshere in the article.

Still, is this what people expect after having gone (how many years is it again) without a title. He was making these decision in the wake of some serious success yet here people are calling for more chances on youth when we're desperately trying to break back into the top 4 in a league that is only getting more competitive. WTF do people want? To be a feeder club or to be a top club? I mean it isn't like the whole Fabregas/Wilshere thing worked in our favour, is it?

 

[Trilly]

There's always a pathway for you if you're good enough. The first team has to take priority. We can't be worried about blocking maybes. You think Wenger was ever giving a thought to blocking Fabregas when we were going 49 unbeaten? Not a chance. Cesc was just so brilliant that he forced his way in and took over the reigns a couple of years later. There are enough games for the kids to play to prove their worth without declining to strengthen and risking them failing to meet the challenge.

I agree with your point but Wenger did just that! It was what made Wenger great but probably also contributed to his demise towards the end.

http://www.squawka.com/en/news/how-...ream-arsenal-move/1063161#CvoHhojooIP48yoT.97

Edit: Just seen that I've been beaten to it, nvm.