The idea of Wenger relying on young players is relatively new. He is a developer of talent, but for most of his reign he has picked up players of varying ages and improved them as footballers. For Anelka and Vieira, you have many older players – the back four, Petit, Sol Campbell, Robert Pires – that have gone on to greater heights thanks to Wenger.

With Cesc Fabregas’ gradual introduction in the 2004-05 season, there was a gradual change in policy with younger and younger players being purchased for large sums. Yet I was thinking about the fact that from the Academy itself, only Ashley Cole can claim to have been a surefire success, and that this happened due to the Silvinho passport situation. If things had gone to plan, Silvinho would have continued playing and Cole would have been offloaded to Palace for £200,000 by the summer of 2001.

So Cole was given a chance. A player Wenger didn’t fancy, but the manager was left with no choice. How many others might have actually made the grade by being properly integrated into the first team and given the chance to play? We’ll never know. Just because players have failed or disappointed elsewhere doesn’t mean they would have done so at Arsenal.

The fear is that the talented Carling Cup players may not be given their chance. Why has Djourou not featured more? Why have we seen so very little of the obviously talented Jack Wilshere in the first team? Because they have been coached by the Academy and Wenger doesn’t trust the produce of Liam Brady’s department. The evidence suggests little else. These players are trained, exposed in the Carling Cup and loaned out before being sold to fund Wenger’s transfer budget for the teenage players he really wants.

Having been brought through the ranks of a club does not guarantee long term loyalty, but I think there is a better chance of a player feeling more affiliation with the club if he has. Ashley Cole did play with passion and commitment until his head was turned by money. But for several years the club did well out of a player that cost them nothing. Pre-Wenger, players like Adams, Parlour, Rocastle, Thomas going right back to Liam Brady and David O’Leary have served the club well after having been taken on as schoolboys.

My point is that Wenger’s team may be young, but if that’s the way it is going to be, let’s give some of the club’s own produce the opportunity to stake a claim for a first team spot. Start filtering them in and see what their levels of commitment are. Even at 16, I think Wilshere would have had a lot more of a go than many of the players seemed to against Villa. I want to see a bit of attitude in the players – like it matters to them. For some of the imported players, it does appear as if they are just happy to pick up their fat wage checks. They’d prefer to win, but it doesn’t seem to bother them that much if they don’t.

And that does not go down well with the punters who pay their wages.