Ricky1985 wrote:
Burnwinter wrote:
Fact is a chunk of our first team squad has been stagnating for a while. I went through this yesterday but certainly there are a few who will come on a bit, more that won't and some will decline without being overtaken in the squad. Overall we'll only improve if we're fortunate with injuries and sign first choice players.
We have had players make quantum leaps forward in the quality of their performance and the size of their contribution above and beyond what they produced/contributed last season. So unless you're talking about players that are, at this point, quite irrelevant, I don't see your point at all.
For every Denilson, Diaby, Bendtner, and Vela, that have stagnated, i.e. not improved the quality of the squad or given something more to the squad than what was there in the previous season, there's a Szczesny, Djourou, Wilshere, Nasri, or Walcott, who have done exactly that.
And there will be more next season who make a step forward and give the squad something extra that it didn't have this season. And it may well be the same players that improved this season making another step forward.
I'm not talking about the players who have come on this season - Szczesny, Wilshere, Djourou, Walcott, Nasri - nor the "failures" you mention who don't start most games anyway.
I'm talking about our established best XI, which would be something like: Szczesny, Clichy, Vermaelen, Djourou, Sagna, Song, Wilshere, Cesc, Nasri, Arshavin/Walcott, Van Persie.
We'll have improved options in one or two areas, but the majority of those players are at their level and their positions will not be greatly threatened by those coming through. In the cases where some might be replaced (for argument's sake, Clichy by Gibbs) it's entirely likely it will be due to the established player's form dropping, rather than his junior coming on in leaps and bounds.
I don't say we won't "naturally" improve at all, but it won't be dramatic and it is possible that key injuries could mean it doesn't happen at all.
The youth players excite me as much as the next guy but once a certain degree of depth is in place - and I'll grant you we might have preferable midfield and CB options next season for example, particularly if our best stay injury free, but equally we might not if say Cesc leaves - the only way to really improve the side is by finding or bringing in players that are better than their equivalents in the current best starting XI. That's just how it works. Your best XI is what matters most.
