Another Arsenal rejection confirmed by player himself

Arsenal rejected by yet another player! by AH

All summer long we have heard about how Jamie Vardy famously rejected Arsenal in favour of securing a new deal at Leicester. It has made the Gunners a laughing stock for opposition fans, who now see that Arsenal cannot even attract players of Vardy’s quality (bearing in mind he’s had one season of fame) let alone some of the world’s biggest stars.

In the space of a decade Arsenal seem to have fallen from one of the most attractive projects in world football, to a team that shows little ambition and has little promise for the near future. Players previously spoke about how Arsene Wenger’s approach would convince them to sign for the Arsenal, but now it seems that he can do nothing more than make them look the other way. Ozil and Ramsey are current Arsenal stars who were convinced to join the club by Arsene Wenger’s ‘sales approach’ of Arsenal as a project, but the latest player to reject the Gunners doesn’t seem at all convinced by Wenger’s so called ‘charm’.

You probably haven’t heard of the name Naby Keita and neither had I until today, however apparently a number of clubs in England were interested in signing the midfielder, but only Arsenal made an approach for him. Keita, 21, claims that Arsene Wenger made a personal plea for him this summer, with the intention of the Guinea midfielder signing for the Gunners. Keita however wasn’t convinced by Wenger’s claims of ambition and instead favoured a move to lowly German Bundesliga side Red Bull Leipzig, in a £12 million move.

Keita said: ‘I had contact with Arsene Wenger, who spoke French to me. But Ralf has treated me like a son. He came to France in 2014 to sign me for Salzburg and I trust him entirely. I joined RB because it is an exciting club with great potential.’

First of I want to make it clear that Arsenal have no more room for midfielders, especially in Keita’s central position, so I’m not too bothered about the fact that we missed out on him. However there is a bigger point here to be made.

Admittedly Keita’s rejection may not affect us on such a scale of importance, given that Keita isn’t the signing the Gunners desperately need at the moment, unlike Arsenal’s attempts to sign a striker. However the fact that Arsenal are now being rejected by players not only such as Vardy, Icardi etc etc, as well as whoever else we may have been unsuccessful in attempting to convice to join this summer, but that we are also facing rejection from youngsters. Arsenal are now facing rejection from a player because he doesn’t feel Arsenal would be good for his development, even though one of the renowned factors of Arsenal’s whole style of operation, is in developing young players into footballing stars.

Even though not signing Keita is unlikely to make a difference, it is a real concern that Arsene Wenger no longer seems to be able to tempt players into joining Arsenal. It was Ozil who last said in 2013, that Wenger was the person who attracted him into joining Arsenal, but perhaps players no longer see Arsenal as an ambitious side, even from the perspective of a young talent. These are players who on in the past may have seen North London as the perfect opportunity for getting a big break at such a young age, but now no longer see the club as an exciting prospect.

AH

24 Comments

  1. wow… are you kidding me?? Just leave out the last, arguably most important line in his interview?
    ‘I didn’t want to move to a big Champions League club immediately. It’s still too early.’

    1. Actually, sorry to the author. After a quick google search this isn’t the only interview going with the story of ‘ohh another player turns down Wenger!’
      It just seems an all too familiar narrative going around that a frustrated fanbase due to the liverpool result and a lack of incoming transfers are gobbling up at the moment.
      I’d bet my bottom dollar that if Asano or Holding had turned us down this summer there’d be headlines of:
      ‘Japanese wonderkid having brilliant Olympics turned down chance to join Wenger and Arsenal’
      ”U19 English international and Bolton’s player of the season having a great tournament turned down Gunners’
      And a large portion of the fanbase would be lapping it up and joining in any excuse to criticize.. It’s a joke at the moment.

      1. lol… it’s like “I didn’t want to move to a big Champions League club immediately, I didn’t want to start my footballing career yet at 40 and my pizza is still cooking…”

        And fans go like “Arsenal can’t even attract old talent…”, “Wenger can’t even win against a slice of pizza…”

        Why do fans always fall for the bull from the media?

      2. He also named Manchester City, Liverpool & Southampton as clubs he turned down….. that detail didn’t fit the writer’s agenda I suppose.

      3. Well put Josh37! And anyway this guy’s quote was taken out of context..he didn’t reject Wenger… He felt that he owed the other coach who treated him like a son! For heaven’s sake Justarsenal!

    2. The unknown kid wants first team football, that’s all said. If he move to Arsenal I’m sure he’ll down to pecking order. We’ve bunch of talented kids here who still waiting for main game times.

      1. It has nothing to do with Arsene’s charm, hahaha…How can you posted something like this Admin, I can’t stop laughing, hahaha…

      2. Yeah… It’s not like we just signed the u17 world-cup winning, captain who was player of the tournament who plays in his position or anything!! And he’s behind Xhaka, Coquelin, Elneny and Bielik for the DM posi..

  2. As much as this story is nonsense but Wenger is to blame for all of what’s going on at Arsenal,last season he only signed a goalkeeper and this season it’s only Xhaka who’s a reputable player don’t even mention Holding and Asano,we need quality experienced players but as long as the specialist in failure is there we’ll never get what we need!!

    1. Ozil did not want
      to come to Arsenal at all.
      Ozil was being squeezed
      out of ‘drid to help finance
      the Bale purchase late in the window.
      By Sept 1 every other ECL side had done their business
      and Arsenal was his only option not preferred option.
      His scowly face in the first 12 months showed how he truly felt.
      He could not say he came because of any great players or because
      the club recently won the Champions league, the EPL not even the FA Cup.
      The club was in the ECL though and he was going to paid 150k p/w.
      That’s all. Nothing to do with Wenger.

      1. It’s the same with Alexis Sanchez he was no longer wanted by Barcelona who needed the money for Suarez and for Alexis it was either Arsenal or Liverpool but Arsenal are in London that’s what made the decision easy for Sanchez

      2. The way you just come up with these stories in your head is truly a thing of beauty david you wonderful man you.

      3. Funny David. Ozil said it himself that AW was one of his reason. Now, you are accusing he lied? What a twisting mind you have there.

        1. Yup, he’s saying ozil needed to cook up a lie, seeing as he couldn’t say “I’m being sent packing from one of the biggest clubs in the world, to play for the archetypal also rans”

  3. Why should we even care about this player ? He’s a midfielder which we have plenty of, he’s only 21 which we don’t need, and most importantly ALL WE WANT IS A GOAL SCORER FFS

  4. We are describing Arsene as outdated, stubborn, etc. It’s all fine because it has points. But to use Jose” The Sacked One” point of view, for me, it’s like bashing your face with that “Mr. Can’t Handle Crisis” both hands.

    1. Yeah Jose was sacked by Chelsea but he’s efficient with his transfer business he was able to convince big players like Ibra,Miki,Pogba to join Man United who aren’t even in the champions league while Wenger failed to convince Jamie Vardy to come to Arsenal

      1. Pogba would go anywhere for £15M a year, likewise Ibra £10M for the year + massive signing on fee for a years contract- leave & repeat in China/USA.

      2. In Vardy’s case it wasn’t simple as we thought. A sentimental thing for Vardy to leave his club. He’s a living legend there. We won’t pursue him even with 200K a week.
        Bunch of ManUre stars you’ve said are gone for MONEY except Mikhtaryan What EPL year have been played at Armenian TV? They’ve been watching the wrong era.

      3. Yeah, deeease. The sacked one, Mr can’t handle crisis can still lure great players to his team. But mr longevity, mr mental stvength, mr I came 4th in 2 horse race, can’t lure 2nd rate players. And AKBs are saying what again?

  5. Young player with talent has choice
    1, Do i go to big club where i will be loaned out, play in reserves or if I am lucky sit on the bench
    2, go to smaller club with manager who takes an interest in me and play regularly in the first team so I develop and hopefully later join a big club and play in the first team

    Sensible lad chose 2.

    So where is the story in that? This is typical media hype.

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