Adebayor, Song, RvP, Denilson, Walcott (not there yet), Vela (not there yet) all improved loads under Wenger and there's so many more too. DM's post was about as far from the truth as reality is, Wenger's best attribute is arguably improving players.
Vela hadn't spent any time at Arsenal being trained under Wenger before he was a first team regular for his country and while on loan in Spain, Wenger didn't train him at all during the time he went from a youth player to a starting international player.
Most players improve slightly as they play more, NO MATTER WHERE THEY ARE.
Fabregas came to Arsenal and was a starting player almost straight away, there was no 3 years of training under a great manager before he was good enough, he was good enough when he got here. Adebayor walked into the first team, wasn't particularly young and didn't noticably improve. Song again, we didn't get very young and hasn't improved much at all. RVP was quality when we signed him, the difference between him now, and 4 years ago, is injuries or lack thereof, he was brilliant when he got here and started games straight away. Walcott hasn't improved an iota from the player we signed.
If you READ WHAT I SAID, theres a HUGE difference between taking a player whose one level, not ready for first team action, spend 3 years turning said player around and making them world class. People like Scholes, GIggs, Neville's, etc, were at a single club from a young age, and became great players. We bought almost everyone we've played in the first team in the past 8 years and very very few of them weren't good enough for the first team when we bought them, pretending anything else is ridiculous.
Wenger's reknowned for buying youngsters and being willing to start them, NOT at all for buying youngsters who aren't great and making them great players. AS I said, Wilshire is really the ONLY player whose spent several years learning under Wenger before becoming a contender for the first team.
If you can't tell that Wenger hasn't bought almost everyone at first team level you're beyond blind. CLichy was rated when we bought him aswell, he didn't improve massively, he was just injured for the best part of 18 months and had Cole infront of him. Fabregas walked into the first team, as did Henry and Vieira.
If you can name a bunch of youth players he trained and brought into the first team, go ahead.
Maybe you should come up with two lists, youngsters bought who have made it into the Arsenal first team, and youngsters we've got who we've shipped out for not being good enough who spent several years if not the best part of the decade at the club with Arsenal in charge, because that list is becoming embarassingly long. Infact when you look at our reserves over the past decade, almost no one has made it into the first team, with very few of the longer term players in the current reserves looking close to getting a chance, most are decidedly average.
Wengers done very well in buying established and already 98% finished article young players in, but his history of buying lots of potentially great players that need more than a few months before being ready for the first team, is abysmal.
