Various Gooners on the web have been suggesting that the signing of Arshavin signifies an admission that Le Prof's youth policy is failing. That's probably true to an extent, as there is no way that signing yet another promising 17 year old from France/West Africa/anywhere outside the British Isles was going to help the side reclaim a Champions League spot.

The problem with Arsenal's youth policy since 1996 is that youth team players chances have gone from very slim (Cashley's the only exception but then he almost signed for Palace when he was 19) to being drafted straight in at a young age. When United promoted their golden generation to replace the outgoing Ince, Hughes and Kanchelskis, Giggs already had three or four seasons under his belt and the likes of Cantona, Bruce, Schmeichel, etc were still around.

I doubt that Cole would have developed into the same player had he either been sold to Palace or not been surrounded with the experienced defenders who were still around when he was initially promoted to the first team. Whether he admits it or not, I'm sure the wisdom of Nigel Winterburn helped him to develop into the left-back he was at Arsenal.

Stephen Hughes was at times unlucky not to get more games and it was a shame to see him go but he eventually joined the likes of Ian Selley, Paolo Vernazza and co in relative obscurity. Nowadays the likes of Song can command a regular place in the first team and I'm fairly sure that if he was to leave then the best he could hope for would be the likes of Wigan or Middlesborough.

On the other hand, in the past Wenger made the mistake of continually playing the experienced (but not at all suited to the Premiership) Cygan at the cost of Upson. And there has been the obvious success stories such as Cesc and the continuing development of Johan Djourou this season and the likes of Wilshere, Simpson, Gibbs and company do, to be fair, look light years ahead of any of the previous generations of young players.

So where's the middle ground? Should the club be making more signings of Arshavin's ilk (i.e. past puberty and a big name) or should Wenger continue to nurture his undoubtedly talented bunch of youngsters?

The answer is both, as young players can obviously learn a thing or two from training with the likes of Arshavin, just as they did when Beckham trained with them last year. But what Le Prof needs to do is separate the wheat from the chaff, the Wilsheres from the Songs, the Gibbs from the Eboues.

It's depressing that lazy sods such as Song and Ade can command first team berths relatively easily. For all the ability that your Ray Parlours and Perry Groves’s obviously lacked, they made up for it in their commitment and effort, two words that are obviously not in Song, Ade or Eboue's vocabulary. By the way, did anyone notice how much better the team was against Cardiff without the two Emmanuels? Just a thought, Arsene...