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