Liverpool legend warns Arsenal that their road to success is a slow one

Liverpool legend Graeme Souness believes Arsenal’s decision to trust their youngsters with playing chances means they will have to wait to become successful.

The Gunners are rebuilding their squad, and they have been signing players that are mostly in their early 20s.

This policy makes sense in the long-term because the players will develop together and achieve sustainable success at the club.

However, young players hardly win trophies because of their inexperience, and that is one reason it is much better to sign experienced heads into your team.

Souness says, as quoted by Liverpool Echo: “Is the process faith in young players? If that’s your process you’ll have to wait for success.

“I think they were predictable. I think what you get with young players is that inconsistency, it’s a hard long season, I can remember going back a few years, when they played against Liverpool they played against a team of men and if you’ve been across the course over time you become battle-hardened and I don’t think Arsenal have any of that in them and it’ll be a slow process.

“I don’t know what process you’re eluding to but it’ll be a slow process for them.”

Just Arsenal Opinion

The club’s board knows it will take some time before success returns to the Emirates, and it is prepared to build towards it.

It is normal for success to take a long time before it comes, but last season we overachieved, and we could do that this term as well.

If we work hard enough and improve on our performance in the last campaign, we could secure a return to the top four.

Tags Graeme Souness

20 Comments

  1. I beleive in this football game there is two blueprints for success. More new way of doing it is buying the league with the like of real Madrid, Chelsea and man City leading th way with that. But in the past we have also seen man utd class of 92 who eventually dominated. Barcelona with the likes of messi, xavi, iniesta etc all from the same accademy growing to be the best.

    I think this 2nd blueprint bring a longevity to the success. Although it takes longer to get there. When it does its lasts.

    Hopefully with 4 accademy players and several other players in their earlier 20s we can for a gel and begin to win games and trophies over the next few years

  2. That balance of home grown, and picking up world class players such as Cantona, Keane, Ince, Ronaldo, Ferdinand etc is an allusive one. We’ll know by next May whether or not Edu has made the right calls. Personally I tend to ignore pundits such as Souness, Kevin Campbell, Parlour, the Nevilles etc. They have their own agendas and often get it wrong.

    1. It’s just their personal opinion like everyone of us.
      If these pundits knew what they were talking about they would all be managing clubs and implementing their superior managerial tactics and player knowledge..
      But they all have as much knowledge as the next person.

      1. They have insights into certain aspects that none of us do – including what it’s like to play in big games and how they and their teammates react to it. They will also have been exposed to different types of managers, some of them great, which might give them some special knowledge, or at least an interesting perspective.
        I agree they aren’t necessarily any more knowledgeable on many aspects, though, and I wouldn’t take their opinions any more seriously than the next person on most things.
        The same goes for managers though – we’re dealing with topics that don’t necessarily have one right answer. Klopp and guardiola are both greats already, but they have very different styles and ideas and I’m sure would disagree on many things if they ever had to work together. Ancelloti is incredibly successful but has a completely different to both of them as well.

        1. @Davi
          Keane only knows insights of the Man United team he participated in in the 90’s and early 2000’s. He ain’t got a clue about Arteta’s or any other managers preferred way / style of playing football.. He might still be stuck in his old class of 96 way. This is 2022.
          If they are talking tactics etc then I would take their opinion a bit more serious. Talking about what type of player they think could l be a good fit for a given team. I can give them a pass on such talk. But them talking about how a certain team missed their chance to ever manke Top 4 blah blah I just laugh ar such nonsense. How such and such team has no chance to make Top 4 etc is all bluster..

          The same so called pundits keep predicting who will finish where in the league and they keep being proven wrong season after season. The only teams we can all be sure of at the moment are City and Liverpool. The rest are just pure speculation. It’s all in the air when it comes to Chelsea, United, Arsenal and Spuds for the Top 4..

          If these pundits could predict the future then we would not need this business of hiring managers and gambling on players signings. All would be doing is to hire the likes of Mystic Keane and save ourself all the nerves of not knowing how each season might turn out..

          It’s the same as this debate about what shoulf constitute a CLUB CAPTAIN. People are stuck in the past thinking that a Captain has to be like Keane or Vieira etc.. It a different time now. We have players earning £350,000 a week that don’t care about the club, fans or manager. How the hell could a loud mouth like Keane be able to scream at someone like C.Ronaldo, De Jong, Pogba, Berbatov, Zlatan, Ozil, Auba, Neymar, Messi, etc? Those players would tell Keane or Vieira is to go where the sun don’t shine. It’s a different generation now and requires a different kind of Captain..

          😊

          1. I do largely agree with you but will point out that people on here only get annoyed when the pundit says something negative about arsenal – we do get a bit of praise as well (arteta got a lot of it at points last season)
            On the captaincy issue, again I largely agree except to say that Keane has mentioned many times that he’d give certain players a bit of leeway – Cantona being the primary example. Still, it is a different game now

        2. Much as I get what Souness is saying, if we keep the same squad, in our 2nd season or phase we could seriously challenge for the lig honours. Yes we need experience but I would say defence wins you the champiinships and I have trust in the back, so far they look solid.
          If we can add Tielemens & Gakpo, shuu this Arsenal could be a marvel to watch.

  3. We killed our chance for top 4 last year. We are on the edge of achieving it this year with improved striker and depth.

    If success means PL title and CL title then I agree with him. But getting back to CL and being competitive, and fighting it out with City and pool over 38 games is also “success.”

    Depends how he defines success

    1. i hope you are right Durand!!i agree that with an improved depth in numbers and quality,MA doesn’t have as many excuses for not rotating the squad,rushing back injured players too soon or playing fatigued players,i am also expecting less injuries except maybe the ones caused by opponents.it is also his chance to show how us tactically flexible,astute…he is,playing different systems,making the right substitutions,at the right time….

  4. For arsenal fan please ignore what ever pundits say bad about arsenal. We all see what arsenal boss bring to arsenal during pre season.. there are all jealous about the growing arsenal to become a champion 2022/2023

  5. Believe it or not, Souness is making a very good point. Before thinking of long term success with young players, we need to first get them signed to long term contracts. And this will not be easy with the likes of Liverpool, Barcelona and other top clubs lurking and ready to pounce at the first opportunity.

    Developing young players is a great idea, but keeping them is a different matter. Why are we struggling to tie down our two brightest prospects (Saka ans Saliba) to long term contracts? We need them to win, but can’t keep them unless we win.

    The balance IMO lies somewhere in the middle: a combination of young player plus experienced leaders.

  6. Good opinion which every true Gunner knows it, money can by you some things not all. Only one club wins the EPL title, so money alone cannot guarantee the title. We spent big money hiring Ozil, Laca, PEA, Mustafi, Xhaka,……… and failed to win the “top four trophy” twice with the greatest manger in the universe, once with a very decorated and respected continental manager and twice with a “novice”. The moral of the story is that you cannot blame the “novice” when the fictitious greatest manager lost his pet trophy twice and a really good manager lost it once. (And the proof lies with the so called “senior” “experienced” players falling flat on their faces at their new clubs, the latest being Laca ,but who cares anymore?)
    So changing the players was the priority and we needed fine young talent to complement the ideas and vision of a fine, young, honest, passionate, hardworking manager. The team on matchdays should be a mirror image of the manager, sadly it was not so all this time, but hopefully , it will be so in future.

  7. Qualify for CL either through league position or EL them have another good summer window and go from there

  8. I was patient with Wengers Youth Project and will be more than patient for Arteta’s young players project until I see that there is no progress.. This season is my ultimate for Arteta. No more excuses or “But and If’s”

    I am a patient person and not too distracted by shiny objects.

    1. @Goonster,the problem with Wenger’s youth project it that he had to sell most of them to pay for the stadium,despite qualifying for the CL every season.even back then tv/cl..revenues were nothing compared to today.if we manage to sign them to long term contracts,we no longer have to sell our best assets.so with the right additions,it may well happened sooner than most of us think.

  9. and how long did it take liverpool to win a title????

    Personally, i do think people around the sport will be very surprised by this Arsenal squad this season

  10. It’s took Liverpool a long time, but it’s also taken us 18 years and counting. How many fans under 30, really remember the invincibles?

  11. I am in for positivity but can we really stop this Liverpool comparison?
    Someone was asking how many years does it takes Liverpool.
    They have been in UCL final 4 times in the last 20years, winning 2. Excluding Europa.
    We have only made one appearance in the final since the competition was renamed. In fact we haven’t participate in that same competition for 7 years.
    In EPL they have finished as the runner up 3 times and won it once in the last 7 years. We have been outside the top4 in the last 7.
    The club is run differently and it shouldn’t be compared.
    We are yet to match club achievement with Dortmund in terms of achievement with this management I wonder why comparing his time with Liverpool already when we are very far behind in all aspects.
    The only thing we have over them is young team which most of the time doesn’t guarantee success.
    Yeah we have potential to be a great team, and hope we do. We should just focus on improving ourselves.

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