Former Gunner Ray Parlour has joined the growing chorus of Arsenal fans calling for the club to put faith in the youngsters in light of the reported low budget.
Parlour used Tottenham as an example but he could easily have used Ajax and a few other clubs that put a particular focus on youth.
There is no point taking issue with Parlour using Tottenham as a yardstick because that will deflect from the points he is trying to make.
“The club have always been run like this,” Parlour said. “The fans know exactly what happens.
“It’s another opportunity for these youngsters to get a chance”
“Reiss Nelson is one who sticks out. You’ve got Emile Smith-Rowe as well.
“I think the fans love the youngsters to get an opportunity – and that’s a road Arsenal might have to go down.
“Everybody wants big signings, but it’s got to be the right player.
“£40m is not a lot, but you’ve seen what happened at Spurs where they didn’t go out and spend money.
“When Emery came in, he knew exactly what the situation was.”
Parlour is, of course, spot on in his assessment, however, it should not be forgotten that Tottenham had spent heavily previously and that created the solid base to build on and that is the crucial difference with Arsenal.
We do not have that solid base, we do have a couple of excellent strikers, but our midfield is fragile and needs time and at least one strong new central midfielder bringing in.
The defence is poor, there is no getting away from that, we have issues across the backline for one reason or another and youth on its own will not resolve that.
Adding the kids in is something I have been advocating on here for some time but it has to be done sensibly, there needs to be a mixture of new signings and youth added to the senior team.
That is where the budget comes in and with player sales could easily be in excess of £100 Million.
Spend that wisely, add some youth in the right areas and Arsenal could be a force next season, get it wrong and our decline will continue.
It’s about time we played more of them in league games. They all get a chance in the preseason matches, look really good and getting our hopes up, never to be seen again. #playtheyoungsters.
Talking of preseason games, here’s the list of teams we are playing:
6/7 Boreham Wood.
16/7 Colorado Rapids.
18/7 Bayern Munich.
20/7 Fiorentina.
24/7 Real Madrid.
28/7 Lyon.
31/7 Angers.
4/8 Barca.
I’ll be watching the game against Boreham Wood as I was born in Borehamwood.
Yes, the team name is different to the town.
What about the mighty Barnet?! ?
Are you from Barnet Sue? As a really young kid my dad took me to Underhill a few times and I remember standing on a large mound at one corner of the pitch to watch the games.
No I’m not, Declan..I just saw something about it the other day, it’ll be an Arsenal XI, which means the kids, as the first team will be stateside.
Nice memories, hey Declan?
“That is where the budget comes in and with player sales could easily be in excess of £100 Million”.But nobody seems interested in any of our players.
With £45 million and little interest by other clubs In our players, we may have no option but to start youth players
Reiss-Nelson could be the answer for the Right Wing
Ryan Fraser for the Left Wing
Or
Zaha RW
Reiss-nelson or Smith-Rowe LW
From 2014/15 Tottenham have a net spend of £28.25m. In that same period Arsenal have a net spend of £260m. I’d like to see you put spin on that about Tottenham previously spending big. What I like more about Tottenham is the amount of English players in their set up. The CL final had a good amount of English players in it due to that and Liverpool also having a decent amount. The Europa final was supposed to be an all English final too but in reality it was as far from that as the venue itself. As much as bringing through younger players, Arsenal needto bring through some English talent….talent that will fight tothe death for the shirt, the club and the fans….because they are one and the same
Completely off topic I know- but it has to be said.
We have a “Series” of Topic Headlines involving African players who have played for Arsenal.
The first was on Christopher Wreh.It received 15 replies with only 6 relevant to the topic headline.
The next received ONE and that was saying the replied had never heard of him.
A very good headline topic going to waste because nobody feels bothered to reply yet over 80 replies are received when in a ridiculous war of words with blind-minded Sweaties who embarrassingly believe Veltic are anything other than a Third or Fourth Tier Football Club at best Just look to see how early they are made to play in the CL Qualifiers every season.That shows how highly they are thought of by UEFA
Anyway my point is Dan wrote a different headline that should be receiving a lot more replies.My only hope is he makes sure Iwobi is included as it’s about time we had a tear up on this site.Admin Martin needs to understand the true feelings of supporters on this site as he has had things far too easy so far
Over to you Dan
Oh I do understand the feelings Phil, doing this job is a fine balancing act and it is not always easy, you hit the nail on the head, one reply, whereas the Celtic one over 80 replies. For this, or any site to survive they need traffic and so you have to target that traffic but at the same time try and remain relevant and credible so we have taken the view of trying to balance things, a mix of rumours, opinions, profiles etc but even doing that I get criticised.
You failed to mention that beautiful piece by Ken. I know it was all about his memory but it was Arsenal history. The responses that was low as well and surprisingly none from the guy who challenged him??
Agree on the tear up about iwobi ,can’t bloody wait ??
Also read a peice in one of the tabloids this week about the 10 best youngsters to watch out for at the AFCON and guess what Iwobi was nowhere to been seen ,and this is after some fans telling us last season how Iwobi was in the best 5youngsters in Europe ,strange how he can’t even make a top ten list in a second rate tournament.
So look forward to debating iwobi when Dan writes one up
Me too Dan-it’s what I live for
Stop under-rating your players Iwobi is not among youngsters to watch. He is among top players to watch. Guess what? He started the movement that led to Nigeria goal yesterday. Running through the midfield before given the ball Old Aina who produced a wonderful backheel assist for Odion Igahlo.
Deleted for using an unnecessary description.
Please keep comments civil, especially when discussing fellow Gooners nations.
We are all Gooners after all.
Must admit I’m looking forward to that too, Dan ?
It was an unnecessary description that was all and as such are not allowed on here.
I personally loved the banter on the “Celtic” one and we all have our personal likes and dislikes.
AdMart puts up a lot of posts so it will please all sorts, it`s not his fault some only get little replies, I too only comment on ones which take my fancy.
The low budget is our own making. We decide to limit ourselves despite the clear demand for a better budget. It’s unbelievable that West Ham have more money to spend than Arsenal. I think are youth system has been poor for years which sum up the gross mismanagement at the club. Moreover, playing our Academy products is not a reason we should not strengthen our glaring weaknesses in the transfer window. Tottenham never recruited all their players from their Academy. They bought many of their players though at a young age. Dele Alli, Vortengern, Anderwielder, Loris, Sanchez, Eriksen, Son, Lamela, Dier and many others. It is called good scouting system mostly with a plan. I wonder why we continuously find reasons for failure. We were on the Tottenham’s project long before them but abandoned it because of lack of purpose. We had a great and young team in Fabregas and Co. It was clear the team was lacking leadership and good CB but Arsenal refused to address these weaknesses until the players decided to seek greener pastures. Everything can’t just come from the Academy, you need to know the areas the youth are ready to step in and the ones you need to address by buying. I am in support of using our youth but against using it as a reason not to sign good players.
Martin, a bit harsh to disparage Arsenal’s youth set up given that both the U23’s and U18’s won their respective competitions last season, beating clubs like Chelsea, Tottenham and Leicester City.
Chelsea have a large number of youth players on loan, yet how many progress? Arsenal has some fine youth talent and I agree with Ray Parlour that Arsenal won’t know how good they are unless given opportunities. The case of Gnabry, now a full German international and Bayern Munchen’s player of the season, still hits a nerve! Liam Brady has nightmares over releasing Harry Kane.
Yeah I’m with you on that Mobella-But I believe a lot shows the ages on this site are much younger and the memories Ken1845 was talking about was from a different era.However the replies did not need to go back as far as Ken wrote-any recent memory would have slotted in there just as easily.
Does this prove there are too many topic headlines per day?I believe so.
Admin Martin-I believe you should re-admit Ken’s post as I’m sure the memories and experiences of younger fans are just as relevant.
You will have Got no idea talking of how we don’t have anyone dribbling down the front of their shirts.Kev talking about how he KNOWS PSG are about to offer Neymar to Arsenal for Jenkinson PLUS £100m.And TH-14 telling anyone who will listen (that is never very many) that with the right coaching Iwobi will become a better player than Dennis Bergkamp.(That is still my No1 idiotic post of all time on this site).
Sometimes less is more
😆
Mine was the nutmeg stat and the pre assists stat..
What do you mean Phil, Admin Martin-I believe you should re-admit Ken’s post as I’m sure the memories and experiences of younger fans are just as relevant.
Ad-Mart nothing meant other than you could put the Article back up with a word from you that ALL experiences from ANY era will get the feedback Ken was looking for.
Understood and yes, I will be doing an article soon that will reflect on Ken’s article in exactly the way you suggest.
Deleted for being an utter idiot
Now, before any of you throw a hissy fit, this idiot wrote a huge essay talking about the Spuds and taking the p**s out of Arsenal.
He is, therefore, an idiot of the highest order if he thinks I was ever going to allow such a comment on here.
See, I am fair, this one I allow
He is admin special egg
Most of the best young players at the top level are ones that were groomed at different clubs. We had Fabregas, Bellerin, Ramsey and Holding etc. Robertson at Liv, Hazard, Deli Ali, Erikson, others could give me loads of other examples. So it’s not just about giving the youngsters a chance, it’s about giving the right ones a chance or bringing in some from elsewhere.