what i saw in the charity shield match today only confirmed what i had been feeling for quite a while - arsene wenger is simply THE BEST manager in the world at the moment.
it also made me doubt something which i had believed - that arsenal cannot win the league without vieira.
what impressed me most of all about the arsenal i saw today is the clear sign of PROGRESS in a club which was UNDEFEATED in the league last season. it really is quite incredible the way in which wenger keeps things fresh at his club. in fact, let me rephrase that. "incredible" is the wrong adjective to describe it, because it all looks so cohesive, so obvious and so simple. it seems to make perfect sense. the correct word for it is brilliant.
what i saw today was the next line of talent starting to step up at highbury:
- reyes - starting to look an inspired signing at £10,000,000. sure he gets more expensive, but if he fulfils the conditions for the price rising, then he'll have been worth every penny.
- clichy - proved his worth already last season, but came on and looked very comfortable.
- van persie - didn't see too much of him today, but enough to show that he has potential.
- fabregas - was, for me, the most interesting man to watch in this match. they were hyping him on sky before the game, talking about how he had been stolen from barca, and was rated at arsenal as the best man in his position of his age group. and how he shone. he looked skillful, as well as willing to get stuck in. at just 17, he is a fantastic prospect, and i only wish he was at liverpool.
- alliadiere - okay, so he was only on the pitch for two minutes, but on reputation he is a good prospect, and he is clearly going to get a bit more football this season, with wiltord + kanu having moved on.
- pennant - was his loan spell at leeds the best loan of the season last year? it certainly looked like an extremely shrewd move from wenger after his performance today. he was skillful and bright - much the way he looked for leeds last season. he could have stayed and played a 'bit part' role at arsenal last season; indeed, had the new ruling re. loan moves to premiership clubs not come in, pennant would probably have stayed at arsenal. but he wouldn't have progressed in the same manner. wenger picked a good club to send him to. somewhere where he would get 1st team opportunities, and learn to knuckle down.
compare all this with liverpool at the moment. we have some good youngsters - medjani, whitbread, otsemobor, vignal, welsh, diarra, partridge, potter, le tallec, FSP and mellor all come to mind. but how have we used them in the past? perhaps they're not all as good as the arsenal crop, but there are surely some of them ready to step up to the "squad backup" status that arsenal's youngsters have?
arsenal's youngsters are good enough to come together and thrash a crap premiership team - e.g. wolves last season (5-1). what do we think would happen if our youngsters were put out against a crap premiership team?
arsenal are able to use their youngsters as their reserves. with all our investment in the academy, we should really be doing the same. who knows, with benitez's apparent squad trimming, we may finally be planning on doing the same thing.
i know i'd prefer us to use welsh as a back-up centre midfielder than someone like diao.
this has been one of our biggest failings of the past years, and is something with, given the financial situation at the club, benitez is going to have to put right IMHO. we have invested in too many squad players at the expense of our first XI and at the expense of our youth players.
consider (as if you haven't already done so 100 odd times) the money spent on diouf, diao and cheyrou - around £20,000,000! how well spent would that money look now had it gone on damien duff (or some such), and had we settled on relying on some youth players for cover.
i'm not advocating a squad of only 11 senior players and then all youth players thereafter. but arsenal have shown that you really do not need an enormous squad of 24 senior players. chelsea can do this because they are bloody rich, but we cannot. we have to rely on signing players young and hoping they come good for us.
arsenal are the standard - wenger has shown that he is the best manager at blending youth and experience, and at blooding his young players sensibly into 1st team football.
i sincerely hope that benitez, whilst having sold about 9 (or whatever it is) players, will move for only a couple of new, top class players. we can rely on our youngsters for our back up. if not, what is the academy for.
arsenal have shown the way. it's time for us to follow, and eventually surpass them - after all, houllier has given us the facilities to do so. all it needs is someone to use them - step up rafael benitez.
YNWA