FA Youth Cup Winners 2009 - Where are they now?
http://www.arsenal.com/news/features/20160302/where-are-they-now-
Worked out largely as expected from my point of view. Few notables:
Luke Ayling is a good Championship defender currently, nobody seemed to rate him back then but I reckon he'll play Premier League at some point too. Liked him a lot back then.
Kyle Bartley I really thought would be a very good player but injuries have done for him. Although, he's still on Swansea's books. In all honesty, even without the injuries he wasn't going to be a top player as I thought then.
Emmanuel Frimpong; nope, never really rated him like others seemed too, but he would have been a Premier League but for both knees snapping on him.
Henri Lansbury is captain of Nottingham Forest now, think injuries got the better of him, but like Bartley, he wasn't ever going to quite make it here, even as a squad player. Think he has Premier League in his future though.
Jay Emmanuel-Thomas was the one that fooled me. Really thought he had the physical and technical qualities to be something big - he was also stupid, lazy and selfish. Should have seen it looking back. His last season in the reserves when he was patently a level or two above is what really fooled me, didn't actually think much of him earlier on.
The two that were the most likely made it; Coquelin and Wilshere. Both were as good as they looked.
What I take from watching all these players closely back then in that great Cup run and considering all these players now is that players don't change much. We think "he's young he'll improve this, this and this" but truth is players at 18 are largely there. You can see their strengths and weaknesses and in reality very few players make significant changes as they get older.
