Personally not what I think but we have had a massive problem with failing to recruit for the future - now is exactly when we should have the new Robshaw while still have the old pair.
Club’s failure was not planning for succession until now - care, brown, robshaw, etc etc
Hang on, how is developing players like Wallace, Clifford and the Chisholms not planning for the future? The club has been very unlucky in that all four of them have had extended periods out with serious injury, but the very fact that we can talk seriously about whether Robshaw is first choice any more tells us that they've done a good job in building a pipeline of players.
It's a similar story in most places. In the time I've been supporting Quins we've developed at least one and often two generations of players:
Ceri Jones -> Joe Marler - and would have had Seb Adeniran-Olule but for his unfortunate death
Tani Fuga -> Rob Buchanan -> Max Crumpton (again, Buchanan has been injured but you can't legislate for that)
Mike Ross -> James Johnston -> Kyle Sinckler / Will Collier
Ollie Kohn/George Robson -> Merrick / Matthews and others -> South / Lamb - the middle generation didn't work out and we passed on Launchbury, but this is probably one of the areas that hasn't worked
Andre Vos/Will Skinner -> Chris Robshaw / Luke Wallace -> Jack Clifford / James Chisholm
Nick Easter -> Tom Guest -> Alex Dombrandt (must admit, I never thought I'd see another player like Easter, but Dombrandt is like a Frankenstinian combination of the best bits of Easter and Guest if we can develop him properly)
Andy Gomarsall -> Danny Care -> Sam Stuart (derailed badly by injury) -> Mulchrone / Saunders / Waters
Adrian Jarvis -> Nick Evans -> [numerous attempts that didn't work out] -> Marcus Smith / James Lang
JTH -> ?? the other area where we've failed to find a replacement
Gonzalo Tiesi -> George Lowe (who should still be playing barring that horrendous tackle) -> Joe Marchant
Ugo Monye / Simon Keogh -> Tom Williams, Sam Smith -> Charlie Walker -> Cadan Murley
Can't remember -> Mike Brown -> Ross Chisholm
I've tried to focus on the academy graduates. Not all of them have worked out, and not all of them are fully baked yet - but at the same time our attrition rate has been horrible. JTH and Lowe should by rights still be our centre pairing. Seb should have been coming through. Clifford and Chisholm should have been taking some of the strain off Robshaw a lot earlier.
What do you think the Academy staff do all day? It's all about succession planning. Poorfour Jr is in the first year of a different academy's development programme (because weird catchment areas) and they are watching 2-300 boys in each year group in the knowledge that 1 or 2 of them will make it to Premiership level. It's not an exact science, and it's not easy, but a lot of time and effort goes into it.