EPL 38/38 - Arsenal v Fulham | Sunday, May 09, 2010, 16:00 |

[otfgoon]

Lansbury had an outstanding passing range as a 17yr old, good to see signs of that returning today, loan spell obviously did him good.

 

[Eirico]

I would prefer Lansbury to stay with the club for the first half of next season, let him get a run in the preseason, play him in the carling cup and give him the odd game here and there. If he then isn't anywhere near being a relieble squad player (wich he most likely wont), loan him out to a Premiership club for the second half of the season like Wilshere this season. Same with JET and Nordtveit.

Bartley, Eastmond and the other youngsters should get out on loan to develop physically and their overall game.

 

[dendito]

Guys we all agreed that we need to add a few experienced players to improve next year so i don't see the point of the argument about Lansbury...

I think it'd be better for him and for the club to let him take more experience and games on loan in another team. We can't gamble next season if we don't want to end another trophyless again!

 

[Eirico]

It's about finding the right balance between giving talented youngsters opportunities and having enough experience in the team. Letting the likes of Lansbury and JET play the odd game wont hurt our title challange. Barca does that all the time, Man utd too and even Chelsea did it this season (Sturridge, Kakuta, Bruma).

 

[est]

Loan him(and our other youth projects) to Bolton, where Coyle can start his own mini-Arsenal and play silky football, while our kids get PL experience and we wouldn't have to blood them in at the cost of dropping points. Win-win! :wink:

 

[otfgoon]

We don't need an experienced 7th choice midfielder.

 

[McIntyre]

It's about finding the right balance between giving talented youngsters opportunities and having enough experience in the team. Letting the likes of Lansbury and JET play the odd game wont hurt our title challange. Barca does that all the time, Man utd too and even Chelsea did it this season (Sturridge, Kakuta, Bruma).

Exactly Eirico.

The reason people are so averse to seeing some of our youngsters getting a chance in the first team is because Arsène went overboard in recent seasons and pretty much made our first team out of youngsters.

That has gone more than a little way towards us going 5 seasons without a trophy.

But that's why it'd be sad if the likes of Lansbury never got their chance in the first team whereas Denilson, Diaby, Bendtner, Walcott, Song, were given year upon year to prove themselves.

Those players still have a lot of potential and they've gained a hell of a lot of experience in the process. But it'd be a shame if players like Lansbury never got afforded anything like those players' opportunities as a result of their failures.

Arsène said in his post-match interview that it depends on hard work and the pre-season performances for players like Lansbury and Wilshere. But it seems he's afforded more than enough leeway to other players in the past, so i'd be disappointed if we didn't see Wilshere and Lansbury getting a fair shot next season.

 

[Big Poppa]

You can't have your cake and eat it. Our problem has not been with our first team being made of youngsters, it's actually that our fringe players are youngsters. When you have an injury crisis you need a sufficient number of dependable an experienced players who can cover, we on the other hand expect guys who are still finding their feet in top level football to come in and instantly find their role as well as deliver a mature performance against unforgiving opponents. If Lansbury, Wilshere, Vela and co are good enough they will make it here.

 

[xcdude24]

Great, great day out. Played in second gear, but it's nice to have a comfortable win for once in a lifetime.

Whether or not we had a **** season on days like this is irrelevant- in a lot of ways the final day is a celebration of your club. We've been disappointing this season, but we're all arsenal supporters and games like today reaffirm that for me.

Special consideration to lansbury, who I thought was great when he came on. Always made the right decisions, and his movement off the ball was also noteworthy.

Roll on 2010-2011.

 

[Y va marquer]

Very nicely wrapped up there xcdude24.
Sad it's all over, always get a bit of lonesome feeling on the last day!
Good days or dog days, title or no title, we support AFC.

 

[xcdude24]

Today also affirmed to me how important RVP is to our attack. He makes things happen, he distributes, he moves off the ball, and he's aware of what's going on around him. His skill is sublime at times, and I really do think you can put him into the world class category, when fit.

 

[Goonereagle]

I see it's been touched on, but I would like to say lansbury looked very comfortable today. Was eggin' him on to get a goal. I'd love to see what he can do pre-season and maybe at the beginning. He looks mature. We have sheds of gifted midfielders who aren't just makin' up numbers.

 

[McIntyre]

You can't have your cake and eat it. Our problem has not been with our first team being made of youngsters, it's actually that our fringe players are youngsters. When you have an injury crisis you need a sufficient number of dependable an experienced players who can cover, we on the other hand expect guys who are still finding their feet in top level football to come in and instantly find their role as well as deliver a mature performance against unforgiving opponents. If Lansbury, Wilshere, Vela and co are good enough they will make it here.

I agree and disagree to a certain extent. It depends on what you mean by fringe players, because in my opinion there's nothing wrong with having young fringe players. Think Daniel Sturridge at Chelsea, Darron Gibson and Rafael at United. The odd player who has proved themselves worthy of a chance in the first team or who can step in and do a job.

What Arsène has done in the last few years is deliberately promote and favour youth in certain positions in the first team or as direct first string cover.

There's no denying that in some cases, like Diaby and Denilson, they have been afforded exposure to the first team at the expense of bringing in (or keeping) an experienced head.

Now their continued exposure to the first team will hopefully come to fruition. They have laboriously been afforded exposure to the first team and should now be ready to either kick on and become bona fide first team players, or they should be playing the John O'Shea/Jonny Evans/Darren Fletcher roles in a fully-rounded experienced squad.

You say that if Wilshere, Lansbury, Vela etc. are good enough they'll make it regardless, but I don't see them being afforded the opportunities that other players have been offered game after game, trophyless season after season.

Especially given the new rules on squad sizes and homegrown players there's a time limit on how long we can send these guys on loan or refuse them a chance to challenge the Denilson/Diaby/Song/Walcott monopolies.

My point is, they don't have to be starters but they have to be afforded the opportunity to prove their worth if certain players aren't performing. Right now they're not getting a sniff of first team action despite some players proving notably lacking!

 

[qs]

I agree and disagree to a certain extent. It depends on what you mean by fringe players, because in my opinion there's nothing wrong with having young fringe players. Think Daniel Sturridge at Chelsea, Darron Gibson and Rafael at United. The odd player who has proved themselves worthy of a chance in the first team or who can step in and do a job.

Do you watch those players much? They're pretty **** in all honesty.

I'm all for having debates on experience vs youth but Sturridge is no where near Bendtners level and Gibsons isn't fit to clean Diabys boots. Rafaels ok I guess, comparable to Gibbs.

My point is if you want to look at the youth issue you have to recognise that our younger players are a cut above those guys. The problem for me is that our younger players don't always compare to the likes of Ballack, Ferrera, Alex, Zhirkov, etc

 

[qs]

Roll on 2010-2011.

Ah-****ing-men

 

[McIntyre]

I agree and disagree to a certain extent. It depends on what you mean by fringe players, because in my opinion there's nothing wrong with having young fringe players. Think Daniel Sturridge at Chelsea, Darron Gibson and Rafael at United. The odd player who has proved themselves worthy of a chance in the first team or who can step in and do a job.

Do you watch those players much? They're pretty s**t in all honesty.

I'm all for having debates on experience vs youth but Sturridge is no where near Bendtners level and Gibsons isn't fit to clean Diabys boots.

I was just using them as examples qs of how a young player doesn't have to be thrust into the first team to learn their trade but given game time they can prove their worth. These players have been picking up valuable game time as fringe players, but they've all done so on merit.

Bendtner, Diaby, Denilson etc etc have been making up our first team squad in the last few years in a direct attempt to gift them experience and hope they learn by doing.

Now that that experiment has somewhat backfired we could see subsequent upcomers like Wilshere and Lansbury sidelined as more experienced players are brought in and the Diabys and Denilsons are afforded another chance to come good as squad players.

All I'm saying is that Wilshere, Lansbury, JET etc have to be given a fair opportunity to prove themselves in the first team. Especially given that some players have been given 2/3 seasons of constant first team exposure to aid their progress.

 

[Anzac]

A meh performance against a team our CCup kids should have been able to beat - Fulham were VERY poor, but understandably so with the biggest game of their club history mid week.

Disappointed in AW's comments about the season as reported in the article on the main page:

"Overall, we had a season with a good attitude, strong character - the team has improved a lot on that front. Overall we conceded too many goals to win the title.

"We want to improve in quality. It is not necessarily a big number of players needed and overall I believe you don't win the title when you concede 40 goals."

Some would argue that the position of goalkeeper has been more of a problem than defence this season, but Wenger has backed his young goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski, who he believes has improved as a player from his recent run in the side.

He said: "There is enough quality there to be an exceptional keeper and he responded well and had a quality game. It is not easy to play at such a young age under such pressure.

"In the last three weeks he is already a different player to three weeks ago. There is a massive talent there."

 

[AshburtonGhost]

It would not be a surprise to see Fabianski as our number one next season. It’s been the same old waffle from Wenger – plenty of appeasing talk around new signings etc after some bad results and then a complete back track now that the season’s over and we’ve finished third.

 

[Anzac]

It would not be a surprise to see Fabianski as our number one next season. It’s been the same old waffle from Wenger – plenty of appeasing talk around new signings etc after some bad results and then a complete back track now that the season’s over and we’ve finished third.

He's already warming up to describing how much of a success the season has been and how much progress & improvement we have made & will do so again next season. :roll:

 

[Burnwinter]

Wenger's post match comments were utterly infuriating. Not many players needed, Fabianski again hinted to be the new first choice keeper, the fans' demands are worrying, we exceeded expectations, business rules must be respected, etc.

It would be nice if he'd stop talking about it to be honest.