Yeah but Alcantara, Pedro, Busquets, Pique, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi were not labeled as world class 12-13 years ago either. It only happened once they broke through with that generation of Barcelona, once they got the chance to prove themselves...same applies to Henry, Ljungberg, Pires and most of that generation of the invincibles, non of them joined arsenal as top class players.
You need to get over this Barcelona thing, we are not following in their foot steps or Dortmunds, sad fact is we don't have any youth coming through and the last player to do so was Gerrard 15 years ago, since then all we have had is a few maybe's who don't make the cut and a few who are sold before their time.
We are scared to develop our own players, it doesn't matter if they're 16, 17 or 18, if they're good enough they should be playing. Rafa and Kenny were scared to break youngsters in case they damage their careers, but if you don't try, these players won't have careers, Messi was 17, Owen was 17, that's the age that you can tell if they are world beaters. Currently we have none because we are too concerned with filling our squad with foreign rejects who weren't good enough at their former clubs.
By the time Messi broke through at Barcelona he had absolutely teared the youth league a new one, we haven't had anyone like that for years, I think only Morgan has done a good job at that level and from what I gather Rodgers is trying to move him on.
When Messi broke in to the first team, Barcelona were already the best, so it was an easy transition, he had plenty of winners in the team who instilled a winning mentality such as Puyol, Larsson, Eto'o, Ronaldinho, Xavi, Van Bommel etc.
If we were serious about looking at the future, the time to do it was when we won the Champions League and FA Cup with Rafa. The likes of Warnock, Anderson, Guthrie, Peltier, Darby, Hobbs etc should be first teamers right now, instead of slumming it in the Championship. We should have given them preference instead of signing all the foreign rejects that we have done over the years.
Even now Brendan Rodgers raises the point that we need more Scousers aka local talent, but then splashes 8m on Luis Alberto whilst trying to force Spearing and Ngoo out the door.
Where are all of Rafa's promising youth players? that's right they are either stuck at the back of the queue or already been sold off - Mackay-Steven playing well in the SPL, Paul Anderson in the Championship, Mihaylov is first choice in the Dutch Premier League and playing superbly,
Martin Kelly was pushed on by Kenny, but slung out to dry by Rodgers, Ayala at Norwich, Kacaniklic has been good at Fulham, Spearing was one of the best midfielders in the Championship last season on the verge of being sold for pennies by Rodgers, Ngoo had a brilliant season in the SPL, instead of being put in the first team, he's been loaned out again, despite our striker crisis, Ince was sold and has been superb in the Championship, Pacheco has been left to rot, Shelvey been sold to one of our rivals, Wilson released on a free, Morgan will no doubt be released instead of pushed in to the first team, we were told by Hyppia that Yesil is an amazing talent and will be a future German international, now rotting in the reserves.
This is why we won't win the EPL for many many years as we're not concentrating on producing solid local talent.
This is where Man Utd has destroyed us over the years.
