Tuesday, 7 June 2011

Almunia, Denilson, Nasri & Bendtner leaving Arsenal - do we care?

It's not so easy to contemplate new arrivals at Arsenal. Us fans have been disappointed so many times by the club's lack of investment on the transfer front. Therefore it's much easier to imagine departures. Some departures seem overdue and few tears will be shed when Denilson shuffles off. The Brazilian has been described as 'lazy' by some supporters and he does have a tendency to play the ball sideways a bit too often for my liking. Despite opting for safe passing first, he still manages to give the ball away with alarming regularity. Not once did I ever believe this midfielder was good enough for Arsenal. He had his moments, but not enough of them.

The same goes for Manuel Almunia. However, I still maintain he's a better keeper than Lucasc 'Bag Of Nerves' Fabianski. Neither keeper inspires confidence and I'd ship both out.

I'd be happy to see all 3 players mentioned so far go on free transfers, but knowing Arsenal, we'll be able to cash in on Denilson at least. Arsene Wenger still seems to believe he can transform the bag of nerves into someone who can protect the onion bag. Personally, I don't think Le Boss will succeed, but no doubt he'll need at least another year to admit it was a mistake signing the Pole.

More worrying, as far as possible exits are concerned, is the possible or even probable departure of Samir Nasri. He seems to be ready made to fill the void being left at Manchester United by the retirement of Paul Scholes. What I fail to understand is how we could sell Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor to Manchester City, yet won't counternance flogging Nasri to United. Surely, if the price is right we should let him go there. After all, we're not really title contenders, are we? Not unless we go in for some major squad facelight instead of just trying to iron out the wrinkles with a tiny bit of cosmetic surgery.

It's been pointed out that Nasri won't be so popular with the fans, now he's come out and said he won't sign a new deal unless he gets a lot more money and Arsenal bring some players in. It reminds our fans so much of the Ashley Cole saga, so don't be surprised if there's a similar outcome with Nasri. If Nasri does move to one of our so-called 'rivals', he'll soon become as popular as a Nasgull at a Hobbit convention, if you'll forgive the 'Lord of the Rings' analogy.

Meanwhile, Nicklas Bendtner is 100% certain to leave. Who says? The player himself. We hear Bayern Munich are out of the running to sign him, so where will he end up? My guess is he'll go to a smaller club, but I do think we might regret letting him go. He's almost certainly going to improve so his next club are likely to reap the benefits of what he's learned at Arsenal. Shame, eh?

Well, Nasri's departure will cause the most grief. If we are to cash in on him, we have to get good money as the cost of a replacement doesn't bear thinking about. How he was allowed to get into this position, gawd only knows. It was as clear before he joined Arsenal that Nasri was incredibly gifted, so why didn't we get him to sign a longer-term deal?

The club have a lot ot answer for. We sign duds forever, while true talent is allowed to leave for free or on the cheap. We need to wise up and fast, if we are ever going to seriously compete at the pinnacle of English football again.

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