re: Arsenal 2013/2014 Season Long Thread

He could become a fine player, but making it at Arsenal is super difficult. The only youth academy players that have made it in a realistic sense are truly world class players (Cole) or players on the track to become world class (Gibbs and Wilshere). We've let plenty of players go who go on and become productive elsewhere. Wenger likes to test players in different ways to see how they react. I imagine Zelalem is being exposed to first team football immediately because he has the size and athleticism to deal with it, and Wenger hopes the mental part of the game comes along with it. If he does have the mental part of the game, then he could probably make it, but if he doesn't he could go the way of other promising youth academy players plying their trade elsewhere.

ETA: Jury's still out on Szcznesy.