The ingenuity of the man called Wenger, the Arsène of the Arsènal, is just rising for all to see. It is not yet at its full bloom. Indeed, many are still following the cloud that lead to deceit and they do not know it, but some are now following the stars that will lead them to the Bloom; then all shall see.

What you say is true, plus you could add that a number of players made their ways up from the lower divisions. Going back to the ’60s I can think of several England internationals who were playing in the old 2 & even 3rd divisions.

The difference today is the technical ability of the English lads has been shown up, particularly over the last 10 years or so.

This an important element in Darius’s article because it would appear that AW has us some way ahead in giving local talent the right sort of training at last.

It does seem that where AW leads the others will follow. Maybe what you described is on its way back albeit at a totally different level & format.

Interesting times ahead.

The days when you knew that Sammy Nelson would one day replace Bob Mcnab. the days when if your centre forward was injured, the reserve CF was called up. That’s why there were reserve teams.

It is astonishing how quickly this model of football team development has been discarded by clubs and forgotten by the seeming vast majority of fans, certainly those at the ‘top’ clubs.

It should return, you’d think, more or less, as the money runs out. The thing is, most clubs now could not support such a structure without a huge investment of time and resources. In an age when all resources are splashed on the next ‘big’ player, what clubs will actually manage, or bother, to spend that time and make that investment.

Would managers able to do it, if they are around, be given the time?
Especially as the debts mount and the pressure grows for more succes to service the debts to enable the purchase of players to…?

Yep but what is the measure for success?

In football some would say the only success is trophies won, promotion gained. At the top level it would have to be PL or CL.

On that criteria around 80 league teams out of 92 are failures.

That is clearly ridiculous so, for me, success is fulfilling realistic expectation, understanding the resources that your team & their competitors have at their disposal.

The problem has always been unrealistic expectation allied to ignorance of how success is normally achieved.

You have explained very well the situation of how AFC had to develop after the conclusion of the ‘Invincible’ period, combined with the general upgrading of the club with a magnificent new stadium, at a time when buying the best was simply not an option because of the reckless purchasing policies of Man U, Liverpool & the whatever it costs attitude at Chelsea.

We would indeed have been bankrupt. It was not even a fair expectation to remain in the CL places whilst building an essentially new team.

“ignorant and misinformed folks in the establishment have spent a considerable amount of their time and energy castigating Wenger”

- add to that the anti-support.

Absolutely baffling!!

Almost there now, I think, against the odds. No guarantees but AW with the board have produced a club & team set up to challenge, long term on a world stage.

It will be interesting to see how easily Chelsea handle the changes that will be inevitable in the next few years. Will there always be a £30m player to instantly fix all their ills & what happens if Abramovic is unable or unwilling to fund it?