Is the traditional winger dead?

Over the last 10 years we have seen a decline in the number of natural wide players who will bust a gut to get down the line and fire the ball into the box, in the premier league the only true wingers from the big teams are Valencia, Navas, Walcott and Lennon. Teams now favour a winger who is more inclined to cut inside and shoot or link up with the midfield and we have therefore seen a lack of width from teams including Chelsea and Man City, Is the traditional wide man due for a comeback, or confined to the history books?

Well with the current favored 3-3-4 or 1-5-4 you need someone cutting inside to give goals if you aren't going to have a second striker. I don't know over time formation preferences change. But under these two formations you can see the thinking about having a different kind of wide forward or winger who looks to cut inside and support the sole CF and play off him for goals.

In addition to Socal's thoughts, might this have something to do with the lack of the traditional number 9? As most teams prefer a more mobile, and generally smaller centre forward than in the past, the out-and-out wide man role has become reduced.

Depends how you see traditional wingers. Giggs would be your archetype Premier League winger, yet he obviously got involved cutting in etc. In the same vein as those who claim 4-4-2 is dead never really noticed how these sides were playing, the winger wasn't as line hugging as you would think

I think wingers are still used.

The Likes of Andros Townsend is one aswell, Adam Johnson was a typical winger...

Pick and choose the times to deploy them but they still have a place. "Full backs" that spend the entire time bombing forward leave gaps to be exploited. As has been mentioned, the growth in using smaller nimbler CFs do remove an element of the target for wingers to hit, but clever movement and pace by the CF can still make wingers useful. But, these days they have to have more strings to their bow than tricky, pacy line runs and a cross.

Resting or evolving, not dead IMO.