Given all the hype about Wenger needing to buy experience in the summer it’s perhaps ironic that the club's youngsters lifted the
FA Youth Cup this week.
They didn’t just beat Liverpool, they annihilated them. They marched to a 4-1 first leg lead in front of a bumper 33,000 at the Emirates. Given the tense and angry atmosphere found at home this season it was refreshing to see the crowd genuinely enjoying themselves and it reminded me what an amazing arena the Emirates can be if the crowd plays their part.
It was perhaps fitting too that the second leg at Anfield took place twenty years on from that famous last day win at the same ground which dramatically grabbed the league title from under the noses of Liverpool.
The youngsters must have taken inspiration from the memories of that day as they grabbed a 2-1 win to secure a 6-2 aggregate victory.
But winning the Youth Cup is one thing; it is transferring that success to the first-team that is the key. Manchester United were the most recent, and perhaps most famous, exponents of a successful youth policy when the likes of Beckham, Scholes, Butt, Giggs and the Nevilles all came through at once to help the side to a string of titles.
Wenger, of course, already has a reputation for placing reliance, sometimes too much reliance, on youth. But looking at the level of skill and verve in the club's younger players this week it is hard not to argue with him.
But if you look back at that successful United side those talented young players had a spine of experience to work around – the likes of Schmeichel, Stam, Keane, Cole and Yorke. The lack of leadership is why we have fallen just short when it mattered this season.
If Wenger can bring in some old heads over the summer to guide the talented young players then I see no reason why we cannot upset the
football odds and go on and achieve success both in the league and in Europe next season.
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