Depends what you consider a gamble. Players tend to have career arcs and Mbappe would seem to be on an elite one…doesn’t mean he’s guaranteed to be elite but but it’s unlikely he’s not at least rather good. See something like Draxler (who was on a similar arc to Mbappe at his age you could say) as a not ideal scenario for Mbappe.
Given his age and talent, £100m for Mbappe is likely less of a gamble than £100m for Griezmann, and you could argue it’s a similar gamble to Mustafi for £35 (paid off) or Xhaka for £35 (probably not a big overpay, but jury’s out).
I agree with @Craigie , it’s more a question of perception and perhaps a conservative mindset (due to being stung maybe by the experiences of Ox and Wilshere?) of not wanting to place too much weight and expectation on a very young player from Wenger.
I’m not really sure that’s true anymore. Bellerin and Iwobi are the only ones who are really getting their chances this season at Arsenal with some of the old crop from 5 years ago filling squad spots that should be freed for a couple more youngsters. At least right now we’re at a point where there’s too much depth in certain positions to provide a decent amount of opportunities to anyone young wanting to join. In general there’s just too much trust put in certain players.
That being said we’re pretty good with players who are mid aged and should reach their prime years in the next 2-3 seasons.
Pretty sure the Jeff and AMN wil l get plenty of opertunityd in the years to come, it’s the same as it always has been if wenger thinks their good enough they will be given the chance
We have plenty of midfielders though, so unless we move someone on or have a lot of them injured it’s going to be hard to really justify giving them consistent opportunities. Same can be said about our center-back and probably striker situation too.
Do we? We’ve got one that would seem to be guaranteed an important place for the foreseeable future (Xhaka), every single other one has serious doubts around him (Cazorla being injuries/achilles of course).
Is Chambers actually any good though? (Not just a question to you, I’m interested what people think)
We certainly have quantity and when there’s 3-4 more players behind the two starting who were brought in to play their part I’d say it is almost impossible to give that time to a youngster that isn’t going to be a level above them. Also going into next season you can add another one with Wilshere, so we already know who’s going to get those minutes.
It’s almost as if selling players has become a bad thing for Arsenal after RVP left.
Good enough to start for Arsenal in the future? I’m not completely sure but he can do If nurtured right. He’s currently doing really and looking competent at Middlesbrough.
Who knows a change of manager to someone with a stronger emphasis on defensive shape and organization might result in better development for younger CB talents
A more defensive system covers the deficienies of a player by default, obviously. Karanka utilises a properly defensive style of play. His apparant approvement might aswell be just because of the system.
That’s why, on another topic, I’ve never understood people claiming Arsenal hasn’t got the players to play defensive football. You don’t need, it certainly helps execution-wise, world class defenders to play defensive football because the system covers a lot of weaknessess of individuals in itself.
This kid is going for Martial money isn’t he? I don’t think the Manc clubs will be going for a younger forward though. Chelsea, Bayern or maybe even Real with Zidane/Benzema there. I reckon he will take time to adjust to the big leagues.
When he first arrived he was, then he looked like bambi whenever called upon but his loan is supposed to be going well from what I’ve read
Lot of imagination there into paths untravelled. How would we know what education or work experience they would have pursued and what developmental opportunities came their way? They reached the top of an unimaginably tough industry, so who’s to say how they could have shaped their mentality and purpose towards all the things they’ve sacrificed to focus on their football career; one of them being the many pathways that lead to a decent day job?
think back to your school days, how many of the people that were good at sports do you think would have been good at academic subjects too if they were forced to achieve well in those subjects before they are allowed to compete in sporting activitys at school?
I saw this scenario quite a lot in my school days and basically to a man/woman the sporty people just completely gave up on everything, it didn’t suddenly become possible for them to be good academically once they were not allowed to play sports any more
if £50m+ is true then it is worth the gamble because you can get many years out of him and he truly looks a HUGE talent, we always miss out on players like this so i hope we can be serious for once about it, no lowballing bids like £25m with £m add ons etc. Just straight out offer the money, he could be a massive signing if they were to ever sell. If he is sensible i reckon Arsenal should be his go to club especially with a manager change. How is he gonna displace CR7 or Bale or any of MSN but here the worst he has for competition is Perez, Welbeck and Iwobi…i am sure he will get more playing time here!
The thing about Wenger is he only wants players that want to be here. He (or the negotiators whatever) will offer Mbappe 80k a week max IMO making wages the only stop gap. Obviously cant prove this but deep down Wenger is stubborn and will be thinking if Mbappe really wants to play here he will accept our offer.
Wenger wont give him wages on the same level as our best players. I reckon we are definitely interested but thats as far as its gonna go for us.