That’s been our whole strategy for the past 3 years, it hasn’t worked.
People complain about Pepe but he was highly rated before he joined. Saliba was supposed to be the Varane before he become Varane but he’s not gotten the chance. Gabriel is another one who started bright but has gone a bit sideways in a difficult season where he’s rotated heavily. All from the French league too.
At best, Camavinga would have a Nasri type impact where he will show his quality here and there, not renew contract and go to a proper team when he’s ready to win trophies. Seen it all before tbh and I’m actually sick of Arsenal ruining so many careers - that young lad would do well not to come here.
He’s absolutely attainable though and spunking our budget and watching his development stall and complain about lack of leadership is just such an Arsenal thing to do - it needs to stop.
I'd say our strategy has been between two stools, youth and experience, and not nailing either. It's like the club wants to build long-term, but it's scared to miss out on CL so it always does something desperate to get top 4 right now. It'd be better to make peace with no top 4 for 1-2 seasons, target only younger players on lower wages, and actually build something.
And listen I get the frustration, we get linked to top prospects, sometimes we buy them, and it feels like they always fall flat, but that's not always the case. Tierney was a top prospect, we nabbed him, he's been good. Others will also come good. If you never gamble and go for the top prospects, you'll get nowhere imo. You have to make bets on talent. The two best players of the modern era, Messi and Ronaldo, were bets on talent. Barca gambled on him at 12, Utd gambled on him at 18. It didn't pay off straight away, eventually it did, cos the talent was there.
I'm sick of the lack of quality in this Arsenal squad, I mean real quality, there's barely any. I'd rather have a quality 18 year old than a good 23 year old.