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Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Go Nicklas, go!


 
It’s been exactly 97 days since I last wrote a post on our beloved site. Since then heaps have happened. You know the drill; the litany of painful woes that have become the hallmark of Arsenal in the past six seasons.
How we capitulated to relegation-bound Birmingham City in the Carling Cup finals; how we threw away a perceived “easy” fixture run-in that would have saw us challenge realistically for the title; how we capitulated before Messi and co @ the Nou Camp; how we slumped from nearly-winners, to a fourth place finish behind Manchester City – the first time to my knowledge we finished below the blue-clad Mancunians.
It has been 90days of pain, again and again. Since we limped over the finish line at the end of the season two months back, we’ve been forced to listen to Ivan Gazidis plead for patience and understanding of Arsene Wenger and his bunch – not forgetting to promise that this offseason, there would be lots of players’ movements.
Well, “lots of movement” was neither clarified as to which direction the players would be moving. So far, we’ve seen two move into the club and two move out. Very balanced indeed. Unknown Carl Jenkinson of the ninja-own goal and Gervinho have moved in, while Gael Clichy and Denilson have been offloaded. Gervinho apart, there hasn’t been much cause for cheer for this lateral movement. Clichy and Denilson surely had their numbers up and there definitely aren’t any tears shed for those duo.
It is however the curious case of one Nicklas Bendtner that bothers me. Clearly, he isn’t part of Wenger’s plans anymore after three years of absolute torture watching him fumble his way through games. We’ve heard that teams like Hamburg are interested in him (good luck to them) but nothing has happened to stir the blood so far.
Why isn’t he off the books yet? Despite their apparent inefficiency and lack of skills, it is becoming a pattern to see mediocre players become reluctant to leave when they are shown the door from the club. Even when they have burnt their bridges and thrown mud on both the name of the club and Wenger, we still see them getting icy feet when its exit time.
Bendtner (with the able assistance of his manger-dad),raved and ranted all season-long about how he was fed-up with warming the bench and how he was too good not to command an automatic shirt. One would have thought he had already signed, sealed and delivered his talents to another club elsewhere and was just waiting for the transfer window to creak open and he’ll be gone.
Same applied to Denilson, who was effectively and permanently shoved aside by the glittering talents of Jack Wilshire all of last season. He vented his anger late in the season when all hope of silverware was gone by announcing that he embarrassed he was to be part of a trophyless team and couldn’t wait to zoom away from the wasteland that was Emirates Stadium.
Well, two months into the much-awaited window and with no club falling over themselves for his unattractive signature, he’s been “loaned back” – whatever that means – to his former club for a season. Let’s hope that’s the last we see of him.
With the improvement of and promotion of returning-Aaron Ramsey, we look well-stocked in the middle of the park.
The likes of Bendtner, Eboue, Almunia and if I may add, Tomas Rosicky have done enough damage and contributed heaps to our trophy drought. The earlier they sign-out and leave us alone, the better for us all Gooners.
Move it Nicklas. If you are that good, why hang around?