EXPERIENCE. Hugely under-rated by Arsene and the Arsenal, and we’re paying the price for it.

The recurring theme over the last few years has been experienced proven players leave, and young kids come in…
Just because a player reaches a certain age… it doesn’t mean he can’t contribute significantly to the team. Bergkamp, Pires, Vieira… these are class players who were solid contributors. Bergy retired, but he certainly had his moments in his last few seasons. Pires and Vieira made big contributions to the teams success as well.

You simply have to have some balance in the team. Scholes and Giggs is as far as you have to look. They have had an massive positive effect on ManU THIS SEASON. Something tells me if they were Arsenal players, Wenger would have ushered them out the door 1 or 2 years ago.
Giggs Scholes Neville Larsson – ALL over 30.
Rio Heinze Saha… ALL 28…

Who else are we chasing… Chelsea.
Let’s look at their make up…
Makelele(34) Schevy and Ballack are ALL over 30.
A large part of their CORE, are either 28 or 29 including Ferriera, Geremi, Lampard, Drogba, and Carvahlo.

These teams have players that have DONE IT. They have experience. They don’t cough it up when the pressure is on, or on those cold wintry road games versus lesser teams… that comes from experience. You can’t swap that out for youth and expect to win… not gonna happen.

We’ve got Gilberto at 30. He should probably be sent packing soon? Right? Can’t give him a 2 year contract?! Inter is already asking about him.

Other than that, Henry is 29, and has been hurt all year. Gallas is 29, hurt all year, and Freddie is 28, hurt very often.

Thats a LARGE part of why we failed this season. With only 4 seasoned veterans of 28, 29, and 30… and 3 out for prolonged periods of time… we had were probably lucky to have been in all competitions as long as we lasted.

The KIDS are only going to take you so far… at some point, against teams like Bolton, Blackburn, and the like, the other teams veterans out wit, out think and out play us too often. To me, its as simple as that.
When we’ve had PROPER balance in the team, we’ve been scary successful… hell, we’ve been UNDEFEATED.

(and note, I am not counting the keepers, you can add in Lehmann, but as usual, we’re probably going to lose him, at 37 he’s a dinosaur)

Bring in proper proven players with some seasoning at this level, and perhaps we can get back to the elite teams in football, otherwise, we’ll be watching until the kids get a few years of experience under their belt.

Arsene, as Black Sheep once said: “The Choice is yours, you can get with this, or you can get with that”.
Please … start getting a little more with “that”. (experience, that is!)

Lead up to my previous article.

I had written an article in which I had submitted a realistic submission of what the Arsenal squad should look like next season.I had not put in Flamini as a midfielder.It is not that I hate him,but it is just that I really feel he is not Arsenal standard.

Yesterday,our team had a off day.It was really really boring.It was frustating.I just thought imagine the plight of someone who was paying 50 pounds plus for this game.

Anyway,coming back to the point.Flamini.I understand Flamini is a squad player the kind who plugs in gaps whenever they arise.It is impossible to see him fitting the permanent role of an attacking or a holding midfielder.

So why him?I really do not understand.On of the keys of our success aganist Bolton was the technique and tackling of both Diaby and Denilson.They both could make excellent passes.But that is not the case for Flamini.He takes one touch too many.And his tackling is average at best.

Though to be fair to him,he has Heart.But that can only take you to a certain level.Not the Arsenal level.The one signing that i wish for next season is actually Sidwell.He really has some steel!And he does make us stronger.

Another discussion that I wanted to have Bentley Vs Alidarie.A few year back,on this very forum I had mentioned the importance of Bentley.I thought he would fit right in the Beckham mould.He is performing very well.And I feel it was wrong of us to let him go.Though essentially it is a Midfielder Vs Striker debate.But again at that time Bentley was seen as a Holding Striker.

A more apt comaprison is him vs Van Persie.Where it seems more even.Though I wish he had stayed.Looking for feedback.