As painful as yesterday was, it should not be clear to Wenger the need to rebuild. While we have great young talent to be optimistic for the future, it is never going to be realized without injection of world class experience & grit. Specifically we need to address 4 areas: 1) Defence: We need a real replacement for DS. Jens is crazy and too erratic. A "field marshall" central defender who can bridge the age & experience gap between Sol & the team of Toure & Senderos. 2) Midfield: We have great talent here but we are lacking real steel & playmakers who can free up space for Fabregas. This is where we need at least 2 seasoned ball winners who can command the field and feed the ball for Henry. 3) Subs Bench: Ideally the bench should have "wild cards" & "shut down" players. Unfortunately when we go to our bench, we are asking Pires, Dennis to shore up the midfield AND to make things happen. Not happening. 4) On Field Leaders: Wenger, who I love, seems to consistently underestimate the need for onfield leaders. Over the last 10 years we have thrown away at least 2 championships & countless Champions League games to “mental wobbles.” We need to have a few, not one, players who kick the others in the pants & drag the team back into a game. This will take the burden of Henry who is not comfortable playing that part of the captain role. Lets hope Wenger gets the message fast before it all unravels. Now is when he needs to show real leadership.
We seem to have aged real quickly. I haven't been happy with Jens overall, but this season I think he's played better, so I'm off the find a new keeper bandwagon. Sol and Henry are looking very human lately, and given that we haven't replaced Vieira, the strength we used to have straight up the middle has disappeared. You can counter that with skill on the wings, but Freddie (who I really, really love) and Pires are not champion material any longer. And our young kids are, well, young. van Persie's turning into a stud, and Cesc is going to be great, but I only suspect if he's on a really strong team. Senderos ought to be starting (maybe Arsene really knew that Sol was not going to have a typically great year and that was why Senderos got so much time as Sol was returning to fitness). But the jury is still out on Reyes, Flamini, Hleb, and Clichy. Given our current form, I don't think we have a single player who would crack Chelsea's lineup at this point (though I am at the point that I'd love to see someone crack Essien one...)
These two statements sum up all of the problems. The team seems to be stuck at two ends of the spectrum, either players that are very young or players who are nearing the end, with little in between. Our signings have mostly been young players, allowing us to get them on the cheap, but it doesn't help when we suddenly have the need for experienced players today. I would expect Wenger has some money to work with (though I'm scared by the doomsday scenario in one of the other threads), but its not going to be enough to bring in a "big-name" player. There are a number of players who can be leaders on this team, not sure if they're doing it in the locker room and on the training ground, but they should be, as well as, obviouslly, doing it on the pitch. Bring in a player during the transfer period, get the old guys to step it up (at least in the leadership department) and continue giving the young kids their minutes and we'll go from there. I think we're better off than the Manc scum who, despite their league position, are in need of many of the same things as us (especially the leadership). The difference is their problem is mediocre players with experience who won't be getting much better, whereas our players are young and should be able to develop. They need to rebuild, I think we just need to build off of the pieces we have.
I don't think the sky is falling or that the team is imploding, but I have felt all season that there is a big gap between the experience level of the current players. There are those that won the doubles and such years ago and a large new crop of younger guys. But as stated by others, Aresenal are missing the link between the two groups. This may only need a few players, but some players with a bit more experience in the midfield would be prudent.
The great British model for home grown talent is Manure in the 90's when 4/5 players came throught the academy together. Let's say that will be what takes us back to the top flight, who are the other 6/7 regular starters who are going provide the springboard for the youngster to play off?
i'm not ripping on you, it's just the "cool" way to say hasn't there been enough discussion and threads made on this topic or similar topics!!
But I don't know that that's something that will be replicated for a long time, not by us, probably not by anyone. That class was sort of a "perfect storm", so to speak. There are just so many variables to success in the top flight as opposed to in the reserves. The path to success for any large club not named Chelsea or Real Madrid remains the same--bring in one successful youth player every couple of years, a shrewd buy or two each summer, and a relatively large, well-established purchase most summers as well. Actually I think we're pretty much the same in terms of our development of young players. Rooney (20), Ronaldo (20), Fletcher (21), Richardson (21), Bardsley (20), Rossi (17), Spector (19)--all have shown they have talent in the top flight and have shown plenty of development through experience. Not to mention the youths like Pique (18) and David Jones (21) who are supposed to come through. Of course not all of them will necessarily come to fruition (like I said above, there are plenty of hurdles to real long-term success for young players), but is the situation really that different from Arsenal's with Fabregas, Flamini, Reyes, van Persie, Song, Clichy, etc? They'll have to replace Pires, Ljungberg, Campbell, and Bergkamp as we will Scholes, Giggs, Neville, and Keane. Both teams are lacking in real, proven leadership to some extent, but for both its going to come down to developing the kids and making the right purchases. I don't think we need to "rebuild" any more than Arsenal do, which is to say not much at all. The foundation and most key pieces are in place for both squads.