Monday, 17 March 2014

Both Nicklas Bendtner and Bacary Sagna potentially to leave Arsenal in the summer

For consecutive years we had lost our top players in the summer (notably Vieira, Henry, Fabregas, Nasri, Clichy, Van Persie) but last year was different in the fact we held on to our best players and added a couple of extra faces too in Sanogo (who shows promise), Flamini and Ozil.

The rumours have already started though as to a couple of players particularly who may be on their way out of the Emirates this summer. For me I wouldn't be disappointed if both of them left the club, and they are Nicklas Bendtner and Bacary Sagna.

I'll start with the Dane by picking up on last week's reports that Bendtner travelled to Copenhagen without informing Arsene Wenger.

And he appears to have had the last straw with the Danish striker, who recently started for his country against England in an international friendly. In relation to his comments in the media, all the gaffer has done is reinstate that the striker's contract is up in the summer but that says it all and I think he's had enough of him, as have the fans.

This in turn though means we will be even more desperate for a recognised striker. We simply haven't been scoring enough goals, especially from our main strikers, and this summer we need to start actually doing more to bring in big names to get us those goals. Giroud may get a few but he is inconsistent and slow. Walcott is again inconsistent, he can't always finish, and Podolski is always preferred out on the wing but we know what he can do when he sight of the goal.

Nicky B back in the days before the excessive hair.
Sagna is rumoured to be off too as his latest reported wage demands are higher than what the board are willing to pay out. I'd be happy to see a replacement for Sagna, not that he's the worst player in the world at all, but we need someone fresher and younger (maybe someone who can cross a ball a bit better, and look more natural on the ball; I don't think his fair share of leg injuries have helped though). Carl Jenkinson can be a fairly good back-up but he's no way ready to be starting choice in my defence I'm afraid.

So who would be good enough to fill the void left by the French right-back who has interest shown in him by Inter Milan and Galatasary?

Nathaniel Clyne of Southampton is one potential target (he was certainly one of mine on FIFA...not that that means anything!) The 22-year-old has become an established member of the Saints' defence and he has bags of pace and good awareness.

Borussia Dortmund's Lukasz Piszczek is another rumoured target and I can see Wenger going for the Polish defender who would sit in front of either his Polish internationals of Fabianski or Szczesny. We've also been linked with him in the past so he should certainly be a name us fans keep an ear out for.

Following our knock-out of the UEFA Champions League last week we now give complete attention to the Premier League and FA Cup. Our narrow 1-0 victory over Spurs yesterday (thanks to Rocicky's wonderful early strike and some good defending) keeps us up with the top four. Thank goodness we don't have to play Liverpool again this season who look likely to storm through the final stretch. Our title chances are looking slimmer, however we aren't 100% out of it, while we have a great opportunity to go all the way in the FA Cup and lift a trophy for the first time in nine seasons.

Sagna signed for the club from Auxerre back in 2007.

No comments:

Post a Comment