Very good. Despite the score, I'd rather be a gooner than a plastic manc...
or you could be a non plastic manc, then its all good.
And that prove the point I was trying to make i.e. how over-rated & over-hyped our much vaunted talent identification network is. United reserve players made our first teamers of the same age look Championship class. You cant deny too that alot of the youth that made up the reserve team of the past few years such as Merida, Barazite, Vela, Denilson etc just havent kicked on or not been given enough chances and this has really hurt our depth. And please Arsen send Arsharvin back to Russia with not too much love, theres just no passion there. I do feel sorry for the likes of Coquelin (who I thougt was admirable), AOC & Jenkinson (thought I dont think he'll be good ) that they have to step up into a poorly structred squad.
Uniteds young players played for Sunderland, Wigan and Blackburn last year, the others were put in a team around Giggs, Scholes, Neville etc. Hence they know what they are doing and can perform in pressure environment. Your young players are thrown into a situation they are not prepared for and people wonder why they get rolled over.
Why bring AOC on when he did? how does that help? Coquelin never stood a chance. Thrown into the middle for his first game. Especially when you have Arshavin and Rosicky as your experienced players.
also don't know if you have seen it, but check out Rosicky for the third goal. Just walks away before the ball goes in. Totally disgraceful.
The problem is, and I've said it before, is that other clubs know we are desperate, Wenger has waited too long yet again, and other clubs know we have the money to spend. Those "bargains" that we have become so famous for are yet again out of reach, and we have to buy third and fourth tier players. If Wenger and the board got their shit together, we could have had a player like Enrique for £5.5m. Instead Wenger dithered meaning if he were on the market now he would cost £10m. Dumb.
I've been thinking about this, Wenger is a very good manager. So why does he do it?
I think its the board. They won't pay top wages and they won't pay top transfer values. They are taking Arsenal fans for a very expensive ride. The 'bargains' that Wenger used to rely on have gone. Either Arab money is overpaying for good players who would be experienced or other teams have got better scouting networks than they used to have. Teams are buying more foreign young players now and have scouts in the same countries as Arsenal. Teams know who the next Henry or Viera is now, so there is competition for players.
The only criticism i would have of Wenger is he gets young players just because they are good, not because he needs them. Hence all the youngsters are great footballers and can do the tippy tappy passing game. He is left with no defence though. Sir Alex as a comparison has recently shelled out on the England U-21 central defence. Why? Because he knew Neville, Brown O'shea were about done so replaced them. Where were the replacements for Adams etc.
