Academy kids versus known quality, what’s the difference in cost?

by & filed under Uncategorized.

I have often had this debate with fellow Arsenal fans, we develop our teams and the manager is rightly proud of that, but are we genuinely saving money by farming our teams?

Let’s look at some of our kids against some of our ready mades, let’s take three of each in Wengers era.

Ready mades

Nasri, Arshavin, Vermaelen total cost to buy say £33mil But ready to play and making and immediate impact on the team, paying back their investment from the off.

Paid for academy kids

Walcott, Ramsey, Denilson total cost £17 million, time taken to make the first team? Denilson 3 years, Theo 2 years and Ramsey still waiting. Are they making an impact? You judge, what are their salaries compared to the three above them? Not far off if Theo is on £60k a week. Add up there salaries for the years they take to make the first team and I suspect we could have bought three ready mades for the same price and not gone through the pain of watching them screw up in games.

True Academy kids that cost us nothing

Jack Wilshere, Jay Emmanuel Thomas, Henri Lansbury, now they did actually come through the ranks, I would like to see them used and given the chances Cesc was, remember when Cesc broke into the first team, he was Ok, but he didn’t look as good as Wilshere, and he didn’t get loaned out, so if the boss wants to perservere with kids, I would be happy if he did it with those three.

Early Wenger purchases

Henry, Pires and Freddie total cost £21.5 million, payback, ha, ha, you tell me! How long? 9 years and ready from day one. (well almost and there was a bunch of ‘player of the year’ and ‘golden boots’ in that little lot, not to mention second in ‘World player of the year’)

So to summise I think we need a few more ready mades, we have too many academy kids that are just not up to the fight, it wouldn’t take much to remedy.

Every successful Wenger team had a lot of bought players in it, even the invincibles had only two that were academy kids, Parlour and Cole, Parlour was a sub and Cole and Clichy swapped, you may say Clichy was a kid and he was, but he still cost us £200k from Cannes.

The same with the double winning side of 1998 and the double winning side of 2002 apart from Anelka (500k), most of them were signings, you see for me that’s what football is about, buying players, winning games, lifting trophies, we aren’t in property development and we aren’t a bank, football is an institution, fans spend the money, management buys players, teams win trophies.

If the clubs want to make a stand against spending vast sums and prudently running clubs then perhaps they should look at the offensive money they pay their players and staff.

How many of you lot could afford to buy your girlfriend a Ferrari at 21? How many of you lot could afford to buy a Ferrari period?

One of Arsenal’s greatest ever heroes, Charlie George, who scored the winner in the 1971 Cup final – that was the subject of my art ‘O’ level, he couldn’t have afforded a Ferrari at the peak of his career.

So what I’m saying is, if you want to champion not spending huge sums of money on players that could win us the league, start championing the huge sums that you are paying to average players that aren’t (winning us the league).

Onto today, 3 points and nothing else will do, and to be honest 3 points against Hull is nothing less than I would expect, we need to get a good performance in because Villa won’t be so easy, so I hope he fields a team today that has the next game in mind.

Never mind playing your favourites Arsene, try this side.

Fabianski

Eboue Gallas Vermaelen Traore

Ramsey Song Nasri

Arshavin

Walcott Vela

I said Fabianski because Almunia is really not very good, he has had too many chances and it’s way past time when even Wenger can see that.

I would put Eboue in for Sagna as I think Sagna has lost something and I would put Ramsey on because when he plays a good game, it’s better and more influential that Denilson and Diaby when they decide to have a good game.

Up top I have Arshavin in the hole, his preferred position and let Theo and Vela rip, up top.

I know many of you can give me the example of how Flamini turned out in his last season, and I agree, he did, but we had to suffer at least 3 shit years waiting for that one good season, all I’m saying is we shouldn’t have to wait, get someone in that’s good now. I’m sure Denilson and Diaby will come good one day, but playing them both at the same time now, well it doesn’t work does it.

Finally, all those great teams and trophy years, Wenger bought them, not me, he can do it again, even mix it up, and he still has January to do something, come on Arsene!

Have a great day today Grovers, I expect a big win today and a message for Martin O’Neil.


1,001 Responses to “Academy kids versus known quality, what’s the difference in cost?”

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  2. chris

    i really hope silvestre wants more first team action and goes back to france, seriously, then wenger would have to buy someone and surely would be better than him…

  36. Rohan

    Eduardo has looked much better today…he has that spark about him again and he seems to have gained a yard of pace…. He’s back on the up again imo..

  37. zeus

    could someone describe Eddie’s gfoal please. Haven’t seen either one of the goals. Doing work in the yard. Nice victory this though.

    Walcott on he needs a goal too. Been shit really.n Get in Theo.

  63. Bostonian

    Mr BBK
    how does the hat taste..?

    the midfield absolutely bossed the Hull cunts and both marmites got goals and even third was set up by Song and Diaby…

  64. maurya

    Kreshnik,
    We are very luck to get points in Fulham. It is very difficult place to visit. We are lucky and we don’t need to go there again.

  74. Sion De Freitas

    Diaby has to keep this up. He has set a bar for himself now, he must keep raising it. We all know what he is capable of, he must realise his potential.

    Two good games in a row now, lets make it a 3rd against Villa

  75. Rohan

    Colonel Mustard, we;ll probably up our game against them.. ( atleast I hope ).. Even the invincibles didnt blow the opposotion apart every single game. The important thing is taht we have come away with an essential victory…
    What I don’t get is why some people are so desperate for Wenger and his so-called favorites to fail as some sort of self-justification…

  80. izzo

    ManUtd are finished i see them dropping off the top four Fulham completely destroyed them. I don’t seethem in the mix this season

  81. colonel mustard

    rohan they are just not consistent enough…thats the problem, yes they have their moments but not consistent.

  84. colonel mustard

    united are far from finished. how long you watching football. we would’nt so smart with verm and gallas out.

  92. maurya

    Kreshnik,
    I am planing to watch the highlights. I am big fan of little Dany Murphy. What a player. He literally bosses midfield whenever we play them.

  111. finestcuts

    Great second half, this is becoming typical, mediocre first half and then a really good second half. But as long as we win, that’s the main thing.

  114. Gooby

    comentator brings on the IF geovani scored. i say fuck off sir.

    verminator-9
    diaby-9
    song-9
    almunia-8.5
    denilson-8
    gallas-8
    arshavin-8
    eduardo-7
    eboue-7
    ramsey-7
    silvestre-7
    nasri-7
    vela-6
    walcott-5

  117. zeus

    @ Gooby THX

    Diaby played well it seems. Hopefully this isn’t the Diaby enigma all over again.

    1. Get injured
    2. After injury, play a brilliant blinder.
    3. Go back to being barely and under average b4 getting injured again.

  121. Mayank

    Actually the timing of his runs and his(theo) positioning are one of the best. It’s after getting the ball that he’s a bit thick at times.

  122. Honest Bill

    Great 3 points. My stream kept going down so i can’t really give an informed opinion on who played well and who didn’t

    Fantastic goal from Diaby though. He and Arshavin linked up really well, and a superb finish.

  128. Kreshnik

    ok here’s the deal,
    first half was pretty nervy, it really shouldn’t be like that
    second, except the non-existent penalty, we fockin slapped em

    i really believe that this team (maybe just ramsey in place of denilson) would have actually beat sunderland, the strength in the middle was what was missing there, and we had it today

    gr8 weekend … i’m off

  132. Ruler

    Ok, for me Vermaelen was our man of the match today, he was fantastic, I think his contribution was important, he plays like a winner and what he said about giving 100 percent when he joined seems tp be true, I like his attitude, I would say one of the best buys of the season.

    Diaby did some excellent things offensivly and defensivly, he was the one who made the run and was fouled for the first goal, did brilliantly on the second and also may of helped Eduardo gain a lot of confidence back and did excellently to score the third, if I remember didn’t he win the ball or assist Cesc in the last game too, if so he’s been involved in our last 4 goals.

    Denilson I think had a good game and his best game in an Arsenal shirt I can remember for a long time, did some good things defensivly, some good tackles.

    Silvestre I thought was ok bar the penalty.

    Song I didn’t think had his best game, to many misplaced passes, he wasn’t terrible but he’s had better games.

    Almunia was solid and I’m pleased for him.

    Eduardo looked much better after the goal.

    Arshavin I am pleased with, he worked hard throughout the whole game, I hope he’s put some of his previous lackluster efforts behind him, cause he tried his best today and that’s all anyone can ask of a player. He’s got so much ability, and the talent the play in the versatile position.

    Nasri did some excellent things, he’s looking better than previously, not sure about the off the ball incident what happened or provoked it and he still isn’t at his optimum level but it’s encouraging he’s playing better.

    Eboue looked ok at right back, at least I didn’t have to see Sagna crossing it into a defender the whole game lol.

    Gallas was ok.

    When we scored the 2nd goal we looked confident and we looked brilliant, we have potential to be the best side in the league if we play with that kind of confidence all the time, I hope that comes out.

    Walcott showed promise with his run, when he has more games under his belt I think he will put those away, but was an impressive run that showcased his pace, he can leave people for dead with his runs and pace.

    Vela looked good when he came on and Ramsey looked cool too.

    Am happy we won the game.

  136. Rohan

    Diaby doesnt score any ugly goals..All his goals are worthy of any goal compilation… bit like van persie in that respect…

  139. Geoff

    Ha, ha I had to come back for this one, Sky just said they decided to appoint Mancini after the Carling Cup game, maybe they saw him call Wenger a fucking wanker and didn’t like it, serves the cunt right, I hope Wenger gives him a call.

    Night all, I’m really off now.

  148. Sabeel Indian Gunner

    Good/Better performance…and i hope we keep up a good performance consistently..as that is what being champions is abt…

    C`mon Arsenal..Let win over AstonVilla on sunday,we have some revenge kindof in that game…

    Inshallah,Lets win over Astonvilla,C`mon Arsenal

  149. BigRaddy

    Strange to say, but credit where credit is due….. Almunia had a fine game. Apart from the penalty save, he made a brilliant save in the second half.

    Diaby grew as the game progressed, but my MoM was TV. Excellent as always.

    Gallas had a super game as well. This has to be his best season in the Arsenal shirt.

    AA is getting better and better in the central role.

    All in all a great result.

    p.s. Watch Crouch’s goals for the Spuds. The first was as clear a foul as you will ever see. The second looked well offside …. Harry is one lucky fella

  150. GordoGunner

    Arsenal has 3 elite/world class players: Cesc, RVP, Arsh.

    I’m trying to convince to be happy with any win when only 1 of those 3 is available.

    Hope Cesc is back for Villa.

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