They'll be good in 5 yrs

[BLUENUT]

RESERVES LEAGUE SOUTH 2006/07POS. TEAM PLD W D L F A GD PTS

1 Reading Res 18 12 2 4 45 15 30 38

2 Watford Res 18 11 2 5 26 20 6 35

3 Chelsea Res 18 10 3 5 26 11 15 33

4 Aston Villa Res 18 9 3 6 38 26 12 30

5 Tottenham Res 18 8 6 4 22 18 4 30

6 Charlton Res 18 7 4 7 28 24 4 25

7 West Ham Res 18 5 3 10 18 28 -10 18

8 Fulham Res 18 4 5 9 16 30 -14 17

9 Arsenal Res 18 4 4 10 15 29 -14 16

10 Portsmouth Res 18 2 4 12 12 45 -33 10

Seeing as we had Sinclair, Mancienne and Smith out on loan for most of the season, not a bad season for the reserves. But we've got to watch out for Arsenal's crop of exciting youngsters, they gonna set the place alight in 5 years time!

Also worth a mention that Diarra, Kalou and Mikel have all had decent seasons for the 1st team, but they're not young are they Arsene?

[SydneyChelsea]

Arsenal have no excuse. They use a similar system to us, the reserves being made up of promising youth-team/academy players and recovering first-teamers. Except that the likes of Flamini and Senderos have played a lot for the reserves.

[g3.7]

the reserves have been very good this year, but I wouldn't place to much emphasis on results.

[BLUENUT]

Arsenal have been very good this year, but I wouldn't place to much emphasis on results.

[Tim W]

Seeing as we had Sinclair, Mancienne and Smith out on loan for most of the season

That list is a bit short Bluenut add Cork and Grant; Pettigrew has also been out and Ryan Bertrand was out before injury struck. I'm sure I've missed someone. Reading's reserves were reserves with a lot of PL and Championship experience. At times we had the youth team out. Brendan Rogers deserves a lot of credit acheiving this result with different playes all the time. Saha would have gone out too, but the club thought he would be better staying at CFC due to his relatively short time in the country.

[BLUENUT]

Seeing as we had Sinclair, Mancienne and Smith out on loan for most of the season

That list is a bit short Bluenut add Cork and Grant; Pettigrew has also been out and Ryan Bertrand was out before injury struck. I'm sure I've missed someone. Reading's reserves were reserves with a lot of PL and Championship experience. At times we had the youth team out. Brendan Rogers deserves a lot of credit acheiving this result with different playes all the time. Saha would have gone out too, but the club thought he would be better staying at CFC due to his relatively short time in the country.

I was just rolling out the ones off the top of my head with relative success.

Mancienne won QPR's player of the year and Sinclair scored 10 goals in 18 appearances for Plymouth

Theo who?

[Tim W]

Hopefully Mancienne Saha and Sinclair will take a step up - Cork, Grant, Pettigrew will probably lose out and be sold on with Bertrand going out on loan again. Not sure about Jimmy Smith. Woods will probably go out on loan soon as well.

[g3.7]

Arsenal have been very good this year, but I wouldn't place to much emphasis on results.

clever stuff.

I meant OUR (that's chelsea) reserves have been good this year. maybe I should have been clearer... at reserve team level and below, the results aren't that important. for the older players it's important that they can be in good condition to play for the first team, and for younger players it's more important to develop on an individual level. I think there is a problem with that english mentality- or there seems to be... that the development structure of young footballers is (or was, untill recently) too archaic. my point was really that, just because arsenal finished near the bottom doesn't mean they don't have good youngsters (a couple have just won promotion with birmingham, have they not?)...

p.s. scott sinclair scored 4 goals in 20 appearances (10 from the bench) and I wouldn't compare mikel, kalou and diarra with young players at arsenal given that mikel alone cost more than what arsenal's average net spending (under wenger) is for 3 seasons.