Is it time to revisit 'Project Youth'?

Project youth at Arsenal failed miserably with most of Arsenal's best players leaving for richer shores and greater chances of silverware and many promising youngsters leaving before their prime. It's no secret that Arsenal need a fair few players in the summer, as they have for time immemorial, but this season has shown a weakness to Arsenal beyond the '2 players and we'd walk the league' opinion that's circled the Emirates for 4 seasons.

This summer Arsenal probably need a winger, at least one to help cover for Alexis who has been severely overplayed and it's showing in his poor performances, a striker, a centre-half, a defensive midfielder, a right back and possibly another Santi type. With Rosicky, Arteta, Debuchy and Flamini guaranteed exits, Theo and Gibbs possible exits and Per ageing we could need even more. Some of those vacancies will be covered by players like Iwobi, Jeff and Chuba making the step up but even so, Arsenal has too many holes to fill and not enough cash.

The Gunners have plenty of money but based on recent statements by Kroenke it looks like the manager will be lucky to get £80m and these days that will buy you 2 top class players, maybe 3 at a push. There could be a solution that will help Arsenal get the depth they need whilst still being able to afford the additional starters they desperately need. Revisit project youth.

I don't mean buy loads of young players, I mean look at the development of some of the players we let go and consider a return. High on the price list would be someone like Carlos Vela, Mexico's greatest export alongside burritos, tequila, zumaslots.org, Corona and tamales. Vela is out of the question since we sold our buy back rights but players such as Afobe, Özyakup, Olsson and Nordtveit. These players aren't going to command starting spots at Arsenal but as we've seen this season, when injuries strike as they always do some of our options have been thin.

Players like Iwobi and Bielik could step up into the first team next season, with Iwobi 95% there already but will that be enough with just 1-2 signings?

A new right-back to replace Debuchy is in order but we could consider bringing back Jenkinson to compete with Bellerin. He certainly looked to have improved at West Ham before his injury so could be an option for us again. Özyakup or Olsson could take Rosicky's spot as back up to Santi, as players who can carry the ball and burst forward with pace.

Nordtveit is an interesting one. He's being courted by West Ham and there are many who could claim we shouldn't be looking at the same players but Payet is an example of a club like West Ham finding exceptional talent and all we really want is someone to replace Flamini and few would argue that Nordtveit fits the bill. Available on a Bosman as well.

Afobe has proven he can score in the Premier League but could prove to be expensive. If there is a truly world-class striker available in the summer then we have to go for them but if not there's no reason we can't look to bring back what we possibly should never have let go.

If we were to bring back just two of those players as well as Jenkinson then the majority of our cash could go on signing Morata, Dybala, Aubameyang, Isco or Lacazette. Short of Kroenke releasing an extra £50m our options will be limited if we want to bring in all the players we need, not just starters but squad players too. Monreal is in his 30s now and Gibbs hasn't quite proven he's the long term choice at left-back so we might even consider looking to do something there too and that's 7 players. If we can bring in 2-3 as squad players, promote one youth player and maybe even go for Chilwell at left-back then we can save the bulk of our money for the two starters we've known we've needed for a while.

Finding all the players won't be easy but we only have ourselves to blame for not doing it sooner.

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