The Situation:
With speculation surrounding first team players like Bacary Sagna and Lukasz Fabianski leaving the club, despite most fans wanting them to stay, I’m looking at the opposite. I’m looking at the four players who MUST leave the club because they’re simply not good enough and never have been. Also known as deadwood.
The Decision :
Nicklas Bendtner – Bendtner made his debut in 2005 and has had some good points in his Arsenal career; a hat trick in the Champions League quarter final against Porto, goals versus Barcelona and Spurs and a goal versus Ipswich which sent Arsenal to the League Cup Final. However his time at Arsenal is likely to be remembered for his underwhelming attempt at fulfilling his self-made prophecy to become the best striker in the world.
Bendtner who is now 26 and one of Arsenal’s longest serving players has become a joke figure with the fans and is simply not good enough for Arsenal and more often than not tends to let you down when you need him most. With memorable near misses against Barcelona, Manchester United and in the League Cup final against Birmingham, he is now on borrowed time. Bendtner is slow and has a poor work ethic. Bendtner has said himself that he will be leaving Arsenal at the end of the season which I’m sure will be music to all Arsenal fans ears.
Park Chu Young – The mystery that is Park Chu Young. The mystery being no one ever sees him, in an Arsenal shirt anyway. Therefore it is hard to judge him. However Park clearly has not cut the mustard at Arsenal and has not shown enough quality in training to convince Wenger to play him! And, considering the strikers we have had this season, it might just show how bad Wenger thinks Park is. Offloading Park needs to be done in order to bring fresh blood in and clear him off the wage bill.
Francis Coquelin – There are a number of reasons why this player needs to go; the main one being the quality of our midfield is currently on a different level to that of what he is on as his mate Emmanuel Frimpong found out. Coquelin, like Frimpong, somehow found himself pretty much getting regular playing time in the first team during the start of the 2011/2012 campaign, but since then our midfield has improved dramatically and I’m pretty sure Coquelin hasn’t had a dramatic improvement in his game since then.
He has always been the sort of player who looks like he’s a tackle away from a sending off. He looks to make up for his size in aggression which is a very risky game to play. The Frenchman looks as though he will be on his way out of Arsenal after being on loan for the entirety of the season.
Johan Djourou – According to sources, Djourou already has one foot out of the door, but is currently still an Arsenal player so he is worth a mention. He has got to be one of the worst defenders ever to play for the club. Despite being a powerful and imposing figure, Djourou was often bullied by centre forwards and was regularly caught out of position.
With Arsenal currently having four centre backs, all far better than the Swiss international, he was forced to go out on loan to Bundesliga strugglers Hannover. Djourou is one of those players you prayed for not to be on the team sheet and when looking back at his long Arsenal career it is extremely difficult to pick out any games at all where he looked like he had the quality to play for the club.
The Verdict:
Although it may seem like a lot of these players are half way out the door already, the fact of the matter is they are still Arsenal players and it is vitally important to get them out of the club and off the wage bill in order to bring in quality replacements. This may seem a straight forward procedure, but most Arsenal fans have been in the game long enough to know it isn’t. Players like Bendtner and Park have tried to be offloaded by the club on numerous occasions with all attempts failing. Freeing up space in the squad will be a key factor in buying players this summer which is imperative for fans to remember.
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