The Power of Youth & Yet Another Reason to Hate Chelsea (as if we needed one)

Yesterday I wrote that whatever happens I'm willing (even if others are not) to see Arsene's grand plan right through to the end. It means that on days like this we can rejoice in the glow of a joyous victory but we know that, at the moment, these young guns or, at least, their slightly older brothers will still lose games through complacency or inconsistency. Last night's game gave me even more hope because although Arsene has used the Carling Cup as a training exercise for his younger players for many years now this year has been exceptional. In the past we have seen much older players (like Gilberto or Jens) mixed with returning injured players (Rosicky is scheduled for the Carling Cup 2011) to help the kids. This year the most experienced players have been Djourou & Bendtner who though they have International as well as league experience are both very young.

Does this mean, as suggested in the Guardian MBM (minute by minute - see last paragraph) that these kids will go on and form the greatest Arsenal team of all time by winning championship after championship, of course not. However, you get the feeling that many of these players are special and can achieve more especially when mixed with a "first" team squad of limited age as well. I know I'm being overly optimistic in the light of a wonderful night but isn't that what being a football fan is about, hoping and dreaming for the best but maybe harbouring some doubts.

Arseblog pointed me in the direction of comments made by Ray Wilkins today and, I have to say, that I'm amazed that someone who though sometimes bland and boring could come out with such remarks.  Though he is a Chelsea boy, through and through, he was always generally smart enough to maintain an even balance on other teams yet once he returned to the "new" chelsea where the likes of Kenyon stalk it seems he had to go to the dark side. There seem to be couple of motives for the outburst and they have Kenyon's trademark thuggish boots all over them. One is the need to denigrate our youth system (though not acknowledging their cheque book system) in a week Kenyon said they will concentrate on young English talent and secondly, we play them at the end of the month - so get the first (or second) strike in early. I think even Chelsea fans who knew Wilkins as a player would have been embarrassed by these comments.

They are a bunch of toadying, lying, sly and obnoxiously evil c##ts and let's just hope that all the very good young players continue to realise where they should really go to get the best football education and, more importantly, chance to shine.