Youth recruitment policy- yay or nay?

[krengon]

Not a fan, you need short term results to prepare for the future. “Worse before it gets better” doesn’t work here because if it gets worse than this it won’t be tolerated by the fanbase, players will be disgruntled and our best young players will look to move away before their prime, while you are stuck having to replace them in a bad position.. Also why would someone like Partey waste the last 2-3 years of his prime in a project unless he has mailed it in? It’s not an ideal environment to develop in either.

That’s ignoring the talent level of this new youth project compared to the previous.

 

[Lady_Gooner]

I don’t get how it works personally. So is everything a write off for 3 years? How do you sell that to fans if we’re out of Europe every year but paying extortionate prices?? What if some players peak and want to leave while some are still developing ?? The project just falls apart. We’re declining rapidly so it may not even matter how good these guys are in a few years if the club is sitting 8-10th.

Maybe they actually think they’re ready now rather than having a long term vision for them like we’re speculating. That’s the best hope and would make a lot more sense.

 

[Oxeki]

It's not a bad recruitment policy tbh. In the hand of a capable person like campos or Ragnick then I'll have more faith. But under Arteta and Edu, it's just going to be arse covering and face-saving.

 

[Blankety Blank]

It makes sense & is a clear plan. However doing it here is not like doing it in the dutch league at Ajax.
There are only 2 teams in the dutch league so they will attract all the best talent. The competition is not tough so its very easy for young players to win games & gain confidence. Confidence is a massive thing for ALL players but especially for youngsters.

Fact is we cant compete with the top 4 at the moment.
The squad needed a massive overhaul and im sure we would have liked to have done more.
We got no decent offers for our experienced players so that tells you both the state of our squad & the market.
If we can get back into the top 6 in the hardest league on the planet with a young team this season it will be good progress.

At the moment we need to try & get in front of Sp**s & Leicester before we can seriously think about top 4.

If we can build & do that & then push for top 4 it will be excellent.

You really cant judge if the plan has worked imho for 3 years, even then we will still have a lot of players around 25 & under.

Arteta or any manager has a big task.

I dont buy that he is not capable of developing young players, he had a good reputation at Man City for doing just that.
However developing so many young players & getting results is a super tough ask for even an experienced manager.

I think its the right decision though there will be bumps in the road. WE have hit a massive one after just 3 games.

The good thing is that this type of planning is not so reliant on the manager.
If the manager goes though you must bring in another coach/manager who is good at developing younger players.

 

[akhil]

This is planning beyond Arteta's whims and immediate needs. This isn't exactly project youth from post Highbury years, we were recruiting teenagers then. These are experienced young players. I don't know what expectations are supposed to be moved, it's the coaches job to fit his players in and get a cohesive style going. If he doesn't, he gets the sack and we look for someone different. It's not like players are going to accept losing let alone the fans.

The awful start to the season isn't because of the young players. He's had a full preseason with most of them.

 

[grange]

A lot of posters on here have been in denial for years.

 

[RunTheTrap]

Did Chelsea plan for the future or did they live for the present?

 

[Blankety Blank]

Douzi is with the French squad this week.... any arguments about his talent have to be dead now

No doubt douzi is talented hopefully he matures. His replacement Sambi is with the Belgium squad.

 

[Blankety Blank]

Did Chelsea plan for the future or did they live for the present?

If Abramovich had bought Arsenal we would have as much or more recent success than Chelski
Same With Man C they operate in a totally different stratosphere.

 

[scytheavatar]

Buying young players is not some strategy or something we have not done in the past........ if that is the extent of our transfer strategy then we are screwed. We will be lucky if half of the players we brought this summer ends up being good enough to still be playing for us 3 years from now.

 

[nas7232]

Buying young players is not some strategy or something we have not done in the past........ if that is the extent of our transfer strategy then we are screwed. We will be lucky if half of the players we brought this summer ends up being good enough to still be playing for us 3 years from now.

The key issue is our manager sucks and loses games. All players will begin to look crap and prices will downfall therefore, no one will want these players. Our experienced players during early Emery or late Wenger could be sold for good money. Aubameyang has gone from a prolific goal scorer to a winger with ageing legs. Spunking 72 mil on pepe and 50m on white is just madness. If we can't sell players then we need to avoid buying mid table players. Even Everton and West ham look a lot better than us at the moment.

 

[TornadoTed]

Something I don't think anyone has mentioned. Vinai made it quite clear that the plan is to build a young squad supplemented by World class players.

If this summer was about bringing the age of the squad down and next summer onwards they supplement to the first XI with 2-3 quality signings in their prime then I am all for it.

However the second bit only comes if we get back into Europe and start looking like an interesting proposition again. We probably need Champions League football to attract the players 24-28 at the top of their game. That is where a good plan on the surface could turn to ruins.

 

[DUFFMAN]

This is planning beyond Arteta's whims and immediate needs. This isn't exactly project youth from post Highbury years, we were recruiting teenagers then. These are experienced young players. I don't know what expectations are supposed to be moved, it's the coaches job to fit his players in and get a cohesive style going. If he doesn't, he gets the sack and we look for someone different. It's not like players are going to accept losing let alone the fans.

The awful start to the season isn't because of the young players. He's had a full preseason with most of them.

He had a pre season with white, Ødegaard, our new RB, Ramsdale???

What are you smoking?

 

[Atlas]

There is nothing wrong with a youth project as long as you accept that not all of the youngsters will turn out to be good enough no matter what you do. The Wenger era youth project was never going to succeed because it relied on players like Diaby, Denilson, Song and Bendtner to come good and that wasn’t going to happen.

This group of players we have might turn out to be amazing in a few years but we still need 2-3 world class signings if we are going to compete at the top. Hopefully this provides a great base to build upon.

 

[tcahill]

Really like this thread, some good points made on both sides.

Something else I'd like to add - people pointing out the risks that younger players may not fill their potential is true, however the same risk applies to buying older players.

Just looking at our current squad, Pepe, Xhaka, Lacazette and Partey are the players we spent big on as 'established' players. The broad metric I'm using is big transfer fees + big wages.

-Partey (50 mill) has shown glimpses, but has spent half his time here injured.
-Pepe (70 mill) is a good player, but nowhere near justifying his transfer fee.
-Lacazette (50 mill) been decent, but not worth his fee either.
-Xhaka (45 mill) - don't even need to explain.

 

[Riou]

Did Chelsea plan for the future or did they live for the present?

What were Chelsea doing pre Roman, tbh.

It all comes down to money sadly, look at City...from 17th being a successful season for them, to 2nd being an unsuccessful one.

You have to be realistic with Arsenal these days, sadly...though Arteta and Edu are doing poor jobs, as we should be in the Top 6 every season.

 

[Barry]

Not sure about all the players we've signed, but it's a Yay for me in the overall youth strategy. It's a year too late even

 

[akhil]

He had a pre season with white, Ødegaard, our new RB, Ramsdale???

What are you smoking?

Ødegaard played for 5 months here, I wouldn't consider him new. He wasn't available for the first couple of games, same as Partey and Gabriel but they all know the system and teammates.

White joined up a couple of weeks before the season opener. Arteta deemed him ready enough to start, ahead of Holding/Chambers.

Ramsdale a f**king keeper.

The RB hasn't come to London yet so I'm not sure how he matters in the start to the season. The options he had there all had 6 weeks of pre season and have been here for ages.

The steady stream of excuses for this guy is unreal.

 

[Barry]

The other thing I'll say is that anyone thinking that Edu/Vinai/Arteta are buying younger players to save their jobs have got this back to front. This windows signings are far riskier for Edu and especially Arteta because they are unlikely to perform as well in the short term. It's a ballsy move and it could well cost them both their jobs. It's absolute fantasy to say that they'll be able to hide behind youth signings. If the results are terrible they'll both be sacked, sooner rather than later.

 

[Tom349]

I wouldn't call it an out and out youth policy. Sure the players we have targeted have age on their side but for the most part they have a lot experience for their age and while they may not hit the ground running like an 80m world class player would, the expectation would be that by the half way point of the season they have cemented their spot in the side and have proven their talents match the price we paid for them.