Youth got to be kidding?

Yes and I honestly believe this summer recruitment should be about getting in players aged 23 or under. I'd only sign senior players if they're cheap, free or on loan. We have enough experience.

 

Well if it's between a talented kid who is hungry to play for the team and will give 100% every game, or a 30 something year old has-been who's on 350k a week and doing **** all then you could probably guess who I'd pick.

 

Should give the youngsters priority in the EL, the FA cup and the league cup next season.

I honestly don't give a **** about the EL anymore. Such a ****ing **** competition and **** UEFA for screwing us this year with two games in Azerbaijan.

I'd rather the senior team gets full pressure to perform in the PL from the start of the season. No more chilling around, put the onus on them to deliver top 4. They won't have the excuse of being tired from playing in the EL or a cup game midweek.

 

This is an interesting concept. I would say with Liverpool and City however that whilst recruiting from 'smaller' teams in the main, they have spent big.

Sp**s are a little different as they genuinely invested in low cost youngsters and under the radar players. Funnily enough their bigger money signings in Moura (until recently), Sissokho, Soldaldo, LLorente and Lamela have been less successful.

 

I’d be more keen on giving the youth who have proven themselves out on loan a chance such as Reiss Nelson and attracting talent from the Championship and other tier 2 leagues in Europe as nowadays there are a lot of talented footballers in the lower leagues who are ready to make that step up.

Dele Alli and James Maddison are just two examples of young players who were signed from the lower leagues and both demonstrated their worth within their first season of playing in the PL. Man Utd are now looking to do something similar by signing Daniel James from Swansea who is highly regarded.

Under Arsène Wenger, those were the type of transfers in which I really liked. The likes of Ramsey, Holding, Ox, Walcott etc despite the criticism they received, all the players mentioned were all excellent business.

 

I am ok with having a good mix of youth. But not filled with youth. It must be like a senior player must have the fear that if he doesn't perform, we have some youth next to them and we are not afraid to drop the senior player and give chance to youth. When a senior player is injured too, obviously youth players should get more chances.
Having said that, when I say senior players, I mean age 27-31. If a player has been here for long AND played well enough, I am ok with having them retire here playing from bench when necessary. I am pretty sure they will have passion to do well when asked to fill in.
But NEVER buy a player of age over 31 years of age just looking for a place to finish his career. In other words, no Lichsteiner or Cech type of signings.

 

Feed bigger clubs? With what? Mustafi or Elneny? Sorry to disappoint you, we have absolutely nothing to feed other clubs with. They are more willing to take our academy players than first team players.
The last time somebody took our player was when Gnabry decided to leave us becazse we didn't want to play him. If you are referring to Sanchez, we've dodged a bullet there. Unfortunately, we didn't have the same luck with Özil.

 

The only issue with that is that we very often struggle to find good loan deals. Chambers and Bielik had excellent seasons but Nelson struggled to get minutes after January. That shouldn't mean that Chambers and Bielik are the ones that have more chances of staying at Arsenal.

 

More crap

We have been losing players for years to bigger clubs .
The irony that you have only focused on more present .

You pick apart your own postal you type them

 

Play the youngsters in the league, not the cups.

As soon as we get a big team, you know the manager would bench all the youngsters.

I want fresh blood in our first team.

Let the Xhaka, Mustafi, and Özil play league cup next season if they dont leave.

 

Very true. Both players who do not play in the spine of the team also. We perhaps need to be more risky in the market, I remember being linked to Matuidi for 3m around 8-10 years ago and not going for it. At the time a young midfielder might not have been what we needed but now we need to be smart and if that means scouring England and Europe for well priced talent - let's do it.

 

Well, I'm sure nobody is surprised but I'm a huge advocate for bringing through more younger players from the academy into the team. I have been an advocate for doing this for a long time - I was still a proponent of Project Youth even when it ended, as I felt it was a worthwhile endeavor and something that would help us build a longlasting dynasty in the future, and I still believe that.

The issue is that the team currently is so fractured that it's difficult to blood them in an environment where they can suitably thrive, however I feel that some of the players in the first team are stale enough that I think sharing their minutes with youth players in similar positions would suffice.

I believe our best performers at youth level - Reiss Nelson, Joe Willock, Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith-Rowe, Xavier Amaechi, Eddie Nketiah - should definitely be in the conversation for first team spots. At a push, you can add Jordi Osei-Tutu as back-up RB - raw but talented, strong athlete. We have a very good crop here and the 6 names I mentioned above are our best, and we can do a hell of a lot with them. They have the pace, technique, energy and final 3rd threat to give us a new dynamic and I firmly believe we can actually get stronger if we trust them more.

And it's only the beginning IMO, as we have more talents coming through in the U18s also, having been the winners of the PL South division this year - the likes of John-Jules, Smith, Azeez, Musah, Balogun, Greenwood, McGuiness and others. The future could be a hell of a lot rosier if we do the brave thing and turn to Hale End. Now - that doesn't mean we should not recruit. On the contrary, recruitment will be an incredibly important part of how we use Hale End. Not all these guys will become bonafide starters but some of them could be very handy squad members for a significant time. Bringing in outside talents to supplement weak areas or take advantage of opportunity should definitely be a strong part of our policy, and it doesn't have to come at a cost to our talents in-house. For that to happen, we need to ship out the deadwood, particularly the experienced players who are happy to coast and not improve- taking up space for younger, hungrier players eager to make their mark at the club.

We need a drastic overhaul of the squad as it lacks athleticism and technical quality, and Hale End should definitely be a huge part of dealing with that, as we have arguably the best talent coming through in a long time. We should be taking advantage of that instead of letting it go to waste and letting them leave, which is a likelihood, given how eager they are to play. We can get stronger if we use them IMO, as they are better than people think.

 

OK mate, It's better than to have **** squad that nobody wants. We are sure then we won't lose any players!

 

I for one have expressed my desire to see us focus on youth.

We can't sign any good players who are midway through their career and arguably at their peak. Yes we got Sanchez, Laca and PEA after this but that was down to the fact they wanted out of their clubs and we were their only option. By 24-25 a player is generally as good as they ever will be. There are one or two exceptions but not many.

I said I would rather field a team with the likes of Holding at the back than another 20m buy. I would rather Nelson getting minutes than Miki and Smith-Rowe than Özil. We need hungry players.

Özil, Miki and a few others have offered nothing to the team. Lichensteiner, Elneny as well.

There's no reason why we could start the season with something like this.

Leno
Bellerin
Holding
Sokratis
Tierney ( in the mould of Robertson)
Torreria
Guendouzi
New centre mid
Smith-rowe/ Nelson
PEA
LACA.

Lots of young players in there who aren't at their top level yet and who may even be looking at Arsenal as a stepping stone. Therefoee eager to work hard and try to improve.

Whereas Miki, Özil, Mustafi and co know their next move is down. They've millions in the bank. They are aging and maybe sick of some aspects of being a footballer. Especially the criticism and expectations.

We won't be close to a league title in the next 10 years. Nor will be be guaranteed champions league. We need some sort of direction.

Start signing young players and hoping they turn out to be gems. Combined with a few senior players it can work.

The sooner we get rid of dead wood the better. If someone said to me this summer we will get rid of Özil, Miki, Mustafi, Xhaka, Elneny, Monreal and maybe sign 2 or 3 young hungry players and we will finish 7th or 8th next year id take it.

It may give those young players a platform to succeed.

 

I find it hard to give a **** or get invested anymore after Jack. If they make it thats a massive bonus but hope we dont do into the season depending on any in key positions.

They also need to start taking more responsibility by making the most of minutes given & stop taking stupid loan moves in key development years.

I can only really think of three performances in recent years where the youngers really excelled... Iwobi vs Barce, AMN in midfield with the Ox in the FA cup match & Eddie with the brace. Thought AMN & Eddie should have got the next game atleast.

 

I'd go further than that and play kids in the league as well

 

It's all about balance. Next year Smith-Rowe, Nelson, Nketiah and Willock should get a squad role instead of players like Mkhi, Mustafi and Elneny. Play them in all the cup games and some of the PL games, depending on form. Next season they can learn a lot from players like Laca, Auba, a new winger and someone like Torreira or Xhaka. I'm sure they're not worse than players like Mkhi and Mustafi right now, and they have room to develop.

 

Play them all. Honestly. Id rather watch young players finding their way than some of our inconsistent under performing established players.

Could AMN be any worse centrally than Xhaka? Could Nelson be any less effective than Mkhitaryan?

 

It will be interesting what happens in summer. You look at Nketiah, Willock, Smith-Rowe and Nelson who have been either on loan or training a lot with the first team and you ask if they are ready for maybe a bigger part next season!

 

Not sure i agree with this.

Mustafi and Xhaka could fall into that category. Signed at 23 and 24 from smaller teams. Both have failed massively.