The last of the Old-hicans

With Wenger’s emphasis on youth, will we ever see a 30 year old regular in the Arsenal first team?

Arsene have built a team around youthful players with boundless energy and amazing recovery abilities. His focus on speed can be seen with the likes of Overmars, Henry, Toure, Eboue, Van Persie and Walcott. There were exceptions like Berkamp and Gilberto (not forgetting our favourite sons fo Cygan and Senderos), it was in no doubt that the majority of the team can run the 100 m in sub 11 seconds category.

The current team has been removed of ‘oldies’ with the departures of Berkamp (retirement), Henry and Ljungberg as the latest casualties. Barring the goalkeeping department of Lehmann and Almunia, the squad consists of 2 old men: Gilberto Silva (31) and William Gallas (30). After them, the next oldest outfield player will be 27 year old Rosicky.

Gilberto and Gallas have more World Cup Winners medals than the whole team, but they are not guaranteed starting berths in the team. At their age of 31 and 30, they should be at their peak of their game and leading the team with their performance. However, the captain of the Brazilian national team has not even started most of Arsenal games in the premiership due to the flaming form of Flamini.

As Wenger stubbornly refuse to hand out longer contracts to players over 30, will Dennis be the only exception of players willing to sign on a yearly basis? Bear in mind that Berkamp is a legend and extraordinarily talented players, what will lesser capable players think about when they hit the big three-O.

With the increasing speed in the game and faster counter attacking emphasis, the starting age of a career in soccer has shifted gradually down to startling extend. While Rooney was an emerging star at 18, Fabregas was declared a future captain of Arsenal at the tender age of 16. Beating them to bigger accolades, Freddy Agu was designated as the future leader of America soccer when he was only 13!

I digressed. With the next World cup in mind, will Gilberto endure the painful bench treatment from Wenger any longer than this season? Is the future for Arsenal really just youth exuberance? Will we ever see a 30 year old regular in the Arsenal first team? What do you think?