Its official

The signings in Jan prove this.
Gone are the great youngsters from the system. Wilshere and Chesney are there but who else are there? Frimpong?
6 years theyre building for the future, now theyre signing Everton crocks and Chelse rejects, all over legal drinking age to boot. An abandonment of his stubborn transfer policy that has failed him post Thierry Henry
Maybe now hes come back to reality, Arsenal can rebuild and live in the real world yet again.
Thoughts?

I'm kinda glad he made some signings, at least. Don't know if it's arrogance or not but, what was he thinking playing youngsters against United? et alone take on the entire league with a young squad like that?

Lord Hispano wrote:I'm kinda glad he made some signings, at least. Don't know if it's arrogance or not but, what was he thinking playing youngsters against United? et alone take on the entire league with a young squad like that?

Let us dispel the myth of youngsters the Man Utd team was younger.

RVP joined us when he was a youth. But for the most part you are right i am afraid. That generation served thier purpose , as they helped us remain at the top 4 without having the financial backings like our rivals. Expect us to steam roll back into the marker in 1-2 seasons. RIght now wenger is building the squad before tweaking the starting 11. Btw Frimpong is an amazing prospect.

Lord Hispano wrote:I'm kinda glad he made some signings, at least. Don't know if it's arrogance or not but, what was he thinking playing youngsters against United? et alone take on the entire league with a young squad like that?

more then half of our squad was injured???

Magricos wrote:

Lord Hispano wrote:I'm kinda glad he made some signings, at least. Don't know if it's arrogance or not but, what was he thinking playing youngsters against United? et alone take on the entire league with a young squad like that?

Let us dispel the myth of youngsters the Man Utd team was younger.

but 10X more expensive...

They cant get around the fact that we were literally BROKE for the most part of 2006 to 2010. We were outspend by 5 -6 teams in the league. Consistently making it the the CL should be a feat in it self. We are coming back tho.

If own a team in F1 and send the drivers out in a Renault Clio, i cant use that as an excuse for failure.
Thats on me.

Forget about money

I think only 4 players from Arsenal brought the average age higher, no?

The signings we made last night were driven more out of the current circumstances than an actual shift in philosophy. Remember that our first four signings this summer were Gervinho (24), Jenkinson (19), Chamberlain (18) and Campbell (18). So the emphasis on younger talents was still there.

But then we lost players late on and the United result highlighted the real lack of depth in the side. The signings made afterwards were pretty much desperation signings. With the exception of Arteta, they were all easy signings to make in a short space of time.

It's a fact that Wenger's first choice for midfield wasn't Arteta, but M'Vila, a 21 year old. We had interest in Hazard (21) and Goetze (19).

We won't really know if Wenger has changed his philosophy until the next summer window, where hopefully we'll be in a healthier state.

I feel as tho, his belief in the youth system still exists. But unlike b4 , I think he has realized that relying on young kids to carry the load of playing to deliver trophies is not healthy. In most cases, it stagnates their growth. And frankly they dont have the balls for it. Nurturing the youth with the side helping of experience will work wonders.It worked for wilshere (bolton) welback (suntherland)

GoonerJay29 wrote:The signings we made last night were driven more out of the current circumstances than an actual shift in philosophy. Remember that our first four signings this summer were Gervinho (24), Jenkinson (19), Chamberlain (18) and Campbell (18). So the emphasis on younger talents was still there.



It's a fact that Wenger's first choice for midfield wasn't Arteta, but M'Vila, a 21 year old. We had interest in Hazard (21) and Goetze (19).

Wenger stayed true to who he is by signing kids like Campbell, chamberlain etc... a bit of a waste if you ask me

but going after the likes of Hazard or Gotze is already a shift, those arent just young players, they are top targets the biggest european clubs are after. He didnt use to go after that kind of young players, wenger was the one to discover hidden talent.

It's simply not sustainable forever, a great coach mix it up, i think wenger failed to do this summer. Nice save tho, he picked it up on the last day.

He did, to a lesser extent. In the late 90's he wanted Ronaldinho when he was still at Gremio but work permit issues prevented that from happening.

Not long after, he signed Anelka who, as far as I know, wasn't some unknown talent.

Then there's Cristiano Ronaldo, but he didn't pay enough for him.

Wenger has always been interested in the biggest young talents but has recently opted for lesser known kids due to the clubs change in strategy.

St_Nick09_of_Goal wrote:

GoonerJay29 wrote:The signings we made last night were driven more out of the current circumstances than an actual shift in philosophy. Remember that our first four signings this summer were Gervinho (24), Jenkinson (19), Chamberlain (18) and Campbell (18). So the emphasis on younger talents was still there.



It's a fact that Wenger's first choice for midfield wasn't Arteta, but M'Vila, a 21 year old. We had interest in Hazard (21) and Goetze (19).

Wenger stayed true to who he is by signing kids like Campbell, chamberlain etc... a bit of a waste if you ask me

but going after the likes of Hazard or Gotze is already a shift, those arent just young players, they are top targets the biggest european clubs are after. He didnt use to go after that kind of guy.

He will eventually realize not all young players he buy and groom will be WC. He sold Denilson, Bendy (loan but he probably leave next summer anyways), JET (highly rated by Wenger himself), Vela would be probably next. He will still do it, that's his philosophy, he only corrects the mistake which was how he's too forgiving toward those guys.

St_Nick09_of_Goal wrote:

GoonerJay29 wrote:The signings we made last night were driven more out of the current circumstances than an actual shift in philosophy. Remember that our first four signings this summer were Gervinho (24), Jenkinson (19), Chamberlain (18) and Campbell (18). So the emphasis on younger talents was still there.



It's a fact that Wenger's first choice for midfield wasn't Arteta, but M'Vila, a 21 year old. We had interest in Hazard (21) and Goetze (19).

Wenger stayed true to who he is by signing kids like Campbell, chamberlain etc... a bit of a waste if you ask me

Chamberlain is obviously something special, everyone was after him , a price tag is not a reflection of a player's ability

Chamberlain was Arsenals most expensive purchase

The balance of youth and experience is the key.

ali8775 wrote:

St_Nick09_of_Goal wrote:

GoonerJay29 wrote:The signings we made last night were driven more out of the current circumstances than an actual shift in philosophy. Remember that our first four signings this summer were Gervinho (24), Jenkinson (19), Chamberlain (18) and Campbell (18). So the emphasis on younger talents was still there.



It's a fact that Wenger's first choice for midfield wasn't Arteta, but M'Vila, a 21 year old. We had interest in Hazard (21) and Goetze (19).

Wenger stayed true to who he is by signing kids like Campbell, chamberlain etc... a bit of a waste if you ask me

Chamberlain is obviously something special, everyone was after him , a price tag is not a reflection of a player's ability

Everyone? Like who?

I think nowadays when other teams spend 150.000.000 a season it's unreasonable to believe his youth system still "could" work.
A few years ago, yes, now, no.

United & Liverpool

wow, so wenger's stubbornness isn't boundless, who woulda thunk it

though all the signings except mertesacker seem to be in the "that'll do" department, still better than playing gibbs and squillaci i imagine... the 8-2 was a blessing after all

che wrote:wow, so wenger's stubbornness isn't boundless, who woulda thunk it

though all the signings except mertesacker seem to be in the "that'll do" department, still better than playing gibbs and squillaci i imagine... the 8-2 was a blessing after all

I think Arteta was the most perfect signing we coulda got atm

yeah, injury prone attacking midfielder

seriously though, of all these signings the only big improvement is mertesacker imho... from what i've heard from fenerbahce fans on other forums santos barely edges clichy to be the second worst left back in the top 5... park is pretty meh, but a traffic cone would be better than bendtner so fair enough, and arteta... he's a good player but again, not someone i would like to field when playing man utd or chelsea...

All i'm going to say is had United made these signings, Fergie would be hailed a genius and given another round of fellatio

Wenger can't do right by anyone, it seems. He buys youth, he gets criticized, he buys experience, he gets criticized. People expect him to chuck millions upon millions of pounds on marquee players. The sooner people realize that's not how Wenger operates, the better

Lex wrote:All i'm going to say is had United made these signings, Fergie would be hailed a genius and given another round of fellatio

well i can't speak for others but as far as i'm concerned ferguson's transfer policy is throwing bags of money at random pl players so yeah...