Years ago Arsenal had a transfer policy that was heavily tilted towards young players but over recent seasons that policy has shifted towards more experienced players, however, I am starting to sense that we may be going back towards a more youngster focussed stance
To give you an example of what I mean had a look at what we brought in last season.
Lucas Torreira, 22, Bernd Leno, 26, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, 30, Mattéo Guendouzi, 19 and Stephan Lichtsteiner, 34.
That is an average age of 26.2 years, now let’s go back to 2011/12 and we can see the sort of players we were acquiring Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, 17, Carl Jenkinson, 19, Joel Campbell, 19 and Thomas Eisfeld, 19.
Now, let’s shift to this summer and anyone looking at the abundance of transfer rumours cannot have failed to notice the number of youngsters we are targeting.
Of course, until we officially sign anyone we will not know what the average age will be of those new signings that is why I said I am getting a sense that we are shifting policy back to the way it once was, I could be wrong.
It may well be that the reason we are targeting young talent is not because of our transfer budget and that they are cheaper options but because that is the direction the club is going in.
It would also mean that they are not necessarily bringing in youngsters because our young players are not deemed good enough, but because they are there to compliment what we already have, which would be a relief I will admit.
Time will tell if my assumption is even close to reality but I do have this feeling that I can’t shake that Arsenal is entering a brand new era in terms of the sort of players it is now after.
This could be the start of a long term project and we know what that will mean.
It will get worse before it gets better.