Losing to Wigan tonight might be for the best (11/11)

[gooner.ed]

http://www.onlinegooner.com/exclusive/index.php?id=836

usual thread starter… you know what, i think if the players are praised or criticised, the manager doesn't take any notice what people think. so if we had lost to sheff utd, he'd have still persisted with his belief that youth is the way to go for arsenal. but purchased youth rather than arsenal-developed.

every extra round is a bonus in this competition for the manager, but the make-up of the squad is not influenced in the slightest by how well the carling cup campaign goes. for the most part, the competition is used as a shop window by le boss. if you look at the teams that have turned out in the last five seasons, you'll probably see most of the young players given early exposure have subsequently been sold.

[gunnerhead]

Let's accept for argument's sake that losing against Wigan will be good for our team in the long run. On the other hand, how exactly will it be good for us in the short term? Not only for the kids but also for the first team.

If we lose against Wigan, everybody will have a blast adding Wigan (friggin' Wigan!) to another list too long for our liking: Hull, Fulham, Stoke. In one quick stroke, all the work by our first team against United will be forgotten. But I guess that's ok because this means Arsene will buy a player or two in January.

Why are we looking forward to January already? It's insane!

[Nice_Guy]

Getting sick & tired of these negative attitudes. Mr Wenger has been at our club for over a decade yet people still seem to think/want him to spend big money on players & not have the kids. How long until you realise thats not how he operates? If we lose to Wigan he wont suddenly think "oh yes the fans are right, we need a GK, a DMC & maybe a CB".

When the credit crunch hits the football clubs & the Chelsea's & UTDS are crippled my mounting debt, we will be in the best position to come through the climate & safely out the other side, then we'll be laughing.

[Skooner]

People seem to forget that Wenger used to be criticised for NOT putting his faith in youth, the team 5/6 years ago had very little youth in it at all. The only player having graduated from the system being Cashley. So he has done it another way and that way worked very well.

The idea that Wenger has always been the promoter of youth is a myth and since he has started putting faith in the youngsters on a grand scale we have won nothing.

Some fans are fed up with other fans being negative about Wenger, well I am fed up with Wenger sticking his head in the sand about our problems, it has gone on too long. I would absolutely love to be proved wrong by Wenger and him to lead us into a period of domination in England and Europe. I just don’t see it though, occasionally he makes comments that offer glimmers of hope that he recognises our problems but he then usually follows it up with the usual diatribe of “I believe in these players, buying isn’t the solutionâ€

[Nice_Guy]

[quote="Skooner"]People seem to forget that Wenger used to be criticised for NOT putting his faith in youth, the team 5/6 years ago had very little youth in it at all. The only player having graduated from the system being Cashley. So he has done it another way and that way worked very well.

The idea that Wenger has always been the promoter of youth is a myth and since he has started putting faith in the youngsters on a grand scale we have won nothing.

Some fans are fed up with other fans being negative about Wenger, well I am fed up with Wenger sticking his head in the sand about our problems, it has gone on too long. I would absolutely love to be proved wrong by Wenger and him to lead us into a period of domination in England and Europe. I just don’t see it though, occasionally he makes comments that offer glimmers of hope that he recognises our problems but he then usually follows it up with the usual diatribe of “I believe in these players, buying isn’t the solutionâ€

[Skooner]

Who replaces him?

When Wenger goes & players leave because of it, it is then that people will realise how good we had it.

Don’t get me wrong, that is a very important point and there is no obvious answer. I’d much rather Wenger got it right and I don’t want him to leave immediately (if at all) anyway, just some noises from the club that things need to improve would be a start. Wenger is currently too powerful and is basically answerable to no one.

I just think we are in danger of drifting along for the next few years getting some performances like Man United & Sheff Utd but also some like Fulham and Stoke and suddenly its 7/8 years without a league or champions league trophy and everyone will reflect what great football we played but always failed to achieve. To me that will be an ultimate frustration, not to win anything when 90% of the building blocks are in place.

Losing Wenger has huge risks. As you mention, a number of the players are loyal to him rather than the club, but Arsene Wenger is not bigger the Arsenal Football Club and there are other managers that are capable of taking the club forward.

The club will stick with Wenger because he does basically guarantee us top 4 and therefore ensures CL money to pay for the stadium. A new manager might bring a new level of consistency and therefore trophies, but they might also drop our standards and cost us prize/TV money putting us in financial trouble.

I guess I can't complain about that

[QuartzGooner]

It is great to have the kids play like tonight.

Be even better if we buy couple of experienced older players to help them learn all the tricks of the trade.

[Redexpress]

whatever about the whys and wherfores on carling cup policy etc, that was just a joyous spectacle of amazing football.

Ramsay was pure class.

[clockend_tom]

No No No Win was a must for the player’s development! I believe they will learn so much more from playing quality teams with premiership players then in their usual reserve leagues where teams and players are slower and generally the quality is low!

[varsas]

I just can’t shake this feeling that it might not be in the best longer term interests of the club on this occasion.

I think you're a bit confused. It's clear that you're talking about short term interests of the club rather than long term interests.

It's beneficial for our youngsters to gain real match experience since a good number will hopefully come through to the first team in the coming years fulfilling a long term strategy.

The issues with the present team are short term and ones that critics want transfers to fix.

[Arthur The Gooner]

Shocking article I dont know why do you even bother writing this stuff...