bb : Goodbye Kenny Powers. (U9808)

hopefully there are, however english football structure in the past has struck me as something that once they find a few good players, everything else below that(youngsters) are forgotten about, i mean when englands midfield was beckham, lampard, scholes, gerrard when they were at their peak(all genuine wc players) did any other young player get a look in when the form of one of those dipped? england were so scared to introduce a new fresh face they ended up shoving scholes out wide

Like Football Bloodyhell says, Southgate is a coach who knows how the game should be played. I hope if he continues to play this type of football he becomes the next England coach and can avoid the same mistakes that Sven made when dealing with the last decent crop of players.

Southgate and/or G.Neville (if he does well) should be the smooth transition to the next England manager . Southgate has been involved with the FA and knows the structure and how it works and speaks of the need to integrate these young players, to give them experience of tournaments etc.
Agree about some players being almost too big and untouchable to be dropped in the past in favour of a young upstart. Obviously we are talking the so called generation here, Terry, Rio, Gerrard, Lampard, Rooney, Cole etc.
The thing that struck me about last night is again trying to accommodate players therefore playing 4-4-2. It simply doesn't work against the best sides now as we at United know only too well !!!

Southagate strikes me as a bit of a yes man, dunno why just have a feeling.

Nevs on the other hand I think would show a lot more bottle were he to be manager.

That said, neither have shown enough yet to suggest they should be the England manager.

I

You make some excellent points then put in Jenkinson and Wilshere

Jenkison was excellent last night so it was only right I put him in there. And your Wilshere hate is always funny to read

MuDD, you need new material.

Robb - good article. Although your point about the chimney cleaning is pretty funny, in terms of how far we are behind Spain, Germany etc it's probably about relative!

Agree about the players though, there are some hugely promising youngsters coming through.

We seem to have an agenda in this country about player ages - it seems if a player reaches 21 and isn't WORLD CLASS, he's basically a waste of time.

Agreed Chris H.

People need to be patient with young players. There is no exact age where players have to have succeeded, especially when a lot of players get injuries in their formative years.

Gerrard was always getting injured between 18 and 22 but then the growing pains went away and he was consistently excellent for a while afterwards.

Chris I didn't slate Gibbs, did I? I'm sorry but Wilshere is vastly overrated and it is still a mystery to most of us including Arsene what his best position is and the less said about Jenkinson, the better

One thing I do fear for these players' progression is game time at a good standard.

What you say about age is true, however, they still need to be playing games to be able at a good level to be able to progress and one day reach their peak.

It seems that many on that list aren't really doing that, although they still have plenty of time to make the step up.

The big advantage the Spanish and Germans have is not just the large pool of talent but that the players have the opportunity to play at a high level.

'm sorry but Wilshere is vastly overrated
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By who? The press and papers have him a fair way from the spotlight at the minute, and no Arsenal fan that I know or hear from seems to overrate him.

He's a 21 y.o CM who spent 14 months on the sidelines through injury and is still recovering. Not sure what people expect. I suspect most who slate him were slating Ramsey about this time last year.

Ah! The Welsh Zidane who turns up and scores goals but has a poor all round game. Passing poor, tackling mediocre but he scores goals and people gloss over the rest of his contributions.

Please can this not turn into a Wilshere debate. That is boring! There are tons of other names on the list to discuss rather than turn this into Arsenal vs United part 97.

Chris, in relation to my point about playing at the top level do you think Wilshere could potentially see himself not playing regularly for Arsenal in the short to mid term and therefore hinder him?

The reason I ask is because Ramsey is clearly first choice at the moment. When Flamini is fit it looks as if those two will be first choice.

Obviously Wilshere will still get games but in the future can you see Wilshere and Ramsey forming a partnership in the heart of Arsenal's midfield?

It looks a bit too open for me and wouldn't get the best out of either of them or be best for the team.

How old is Flamini? I vaguely remember hearing he's only signed a 1 year contract with Arsenal (though how true that is, I don't know!)

Can't really see a Ramsey & Wilshere two man CM partnership to be honest Darren, like you say it's a little too open. Them two, plus a DM behind them perhaps, but that's probably a couple of years down the line at least.

comment by Jay - Badass MUFC'er. (U16498)
posted 55 seconds ago
How old is Flamini? I vaguely remember hearing he's only signed a 1 year contract with Arsenal (though how true that is, I don't know!)
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Two year deal I think. He's like 29/30?

Would that mean moving Ozil out wide then?

Ozil is half the player out wide.

comment by ManUtdDaredevil (U9612)
posted 8 minutes ago
Ah! The Welsh Zidane who turns up and scores goals but has a poor all round game. Passing poor, tackling mediocre but he scores goals and people gloss over the rest of his contributions.
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He's tackling is indeed not amazing.

Passing very good these days though, not Xavi level or near it, but moves the ball round very well.

If you think the 'hype' surrounding him is purely down to his goalscoring, I'm pretty sure you haven't watched him bar probably the United game.

comment by Chris H (U15205)
posted 2 minutes ago
comment by Jay - Badass MUFC'er. (U16498)
posted 55 seconds ago
How old is Flamini? I vaguely remember hearing he's only signed a 1 year contract with Arsenal (though how true that is, I don't know!)
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Two year deal I think. He's like 29/30?
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That is unlikely to hamper Wilshere too much then!

Jay, but they might go out and sign a player in the mould of Flamini.

Will be interesting to see how things go at Arsenal with their new found wealth.

Will Wenger look to spend big in key areas, at the expense of some of his talented youngsters, so that he can build a formidable team?

Or will he try and strike a balance between the two for the good of the development of his youngsters?

I'm sorry but however good we think these youngsters are they're just not at the same level as the youngsters from the top countries.

They'll be hyped up and turn out to be no better than Wilshere is right now.

There seem to be a surfeit of Midfielders and defenders ( something England has never struggled with).

But i don't see the next generation of strikers. This is the era of mediocre forwards and could be argued : defenders!

By dint of that fact : 'the future is dark and full of terrors'.

Or will he try and strike a balance between the two for the good of the development of his youngsters?
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Pretty convinced it's this.

I'm fairly confident the core of our team will be pretty similar in 4 or 5 years time.

Gibbs, Jenkinson, Ramsey, Wilshere, Walcott, Ox etc.

And then the team built round that will be a mix of more youngsters coming through who make the grade, Zelalem and Gnabry being two who look very promising, and purchases.