Arsenal regret allowing talented midfielder to slip through their fingers

Ismael Bennacer is one of the best midfielders in Italy at the moment and the Algerian is now being targeted by top European teams.

He is one of several players that Arsenal have allowed to leave the club too early as he is now showing them what they are missing.

He was in the Gunners team for two years but he saw limited action, and he decided to leave the club for the Italian side, Empoli in 2017.

He helped them get promoted back to the Italian top flight after just one season with them.

He was with them for just a season in Serie A as his performances caught the attention of AC Milan.

The Milan side signed him in the summer of 2019, but Arsenal had the chance to sign him then as well, all they needed to do was to match Milan’s offer at the time, according to Calciomercato.

However, the Gunners decided against making that transfer decision and he has now become one of the best midfielders in Italy.

The report adds that the Gunners board are kicking themselves for missing the chance of re-signing him as well as letting him leave in the first place.

Tags Ismael Bennacer

15 Comments

    1. Hindsight is a wonderful thing lcw and ALL clubs would love to turn the clock back at some time or another – Chelsea and De Bruyne for example (not sure if I’ve spelt his name correctly).

      1. Ken, why ain’t we talking about letting Chris Willock leave?
        Can we keep all the academy players?
        Some might be successful some might not. So why do we cry when an Academy player flourishes somewhere?

        Arsenal fans!!
        Hmmmm

        1. Phenom, my point exactly and Pat’s I think, my fellow Gooner.

          No use keep crying over spilt milk – just move on, nothing can be changed.

        2. I don’t think that this is unique to AFC fans. All football fans do that…It human nature to regret..

      2. Ken: We are talking about young players we let go for peanuts and who did not cost a lot of money to keep around. Besides talent evaluators are paid a lot of money to avoid the hindsight moments. That’s what they do for a living so they have no excuse.

  1. Another one they might regret is Josh Dasilva of Brentford who impresses me and seems to have a great future.

      1. None so insular as many fans Ken. They think the whole of our sport revolves around their club. Unless they choose to look at the wider picture, but many never will, never even want to. Sigh!
        In the USA they would all be TRUMP supporters naturally. Over there WORLD SERIES is always between two USA CLUBS! What a coincidence, being EVERY year too!

  2. Maybe sometimes it’s frustrating when there are opportunities available. For example, when we still had Gnabry Ramsey kept getting shoe-horned into the RW position. There were sub opportunities available and cup games, but he was loaned to West Brom instead. In hindsight that was a huge mistake because it seems like Gnabry never truly got a fair run out or look into what he could do.
    It’s a difficult decision to make; being competitive in the league and going for silverware and yet providing opportunities for young players and getting them valuable game time and experience.
    It just feels like we miss more often than succeed when it comes to those decisions. I hope that’s not the case with Saliba and the possibilities for his future. Arteta’s job is to coach up players and develop them, not just choose lineups and relay tactics to players.
    Saliba is young, but has so much potential, and it feels like Arteta isn’t doing a good job with him. I mean no excuse to be left off Europa roster and have so many GK.

  3. Sometimes in life people have to have a major setback in life to be able to get that drive to succeed.

    Many players are like this and we only see it in the future, some players at a young age are just crap, they take things for granted and dont apply themselves in the right way, then they get a major knockback and that drives them on to be successful in the future.

  4. All clubs let players leave who they later regret. That is just football life. Salah and de Bruyne are Chelseas two biggest errors,so imagine how THEIR fans feel now!

    Of course if you choose to look no further than our club when educating yourself about players in general, it is likely that you will think the only players let go and later regretted are ours! Not so.

    That is how Trump and his supporters think, that everything revolves only around them. Not in the real world!

  5. I think, now our recruitment policy is trying to better that by signing young players eith good potential for the junior teams, and with many senior players out of contract in one or two years, these guys can stake their claim for spots in the team.

    1. Sid: But we just signed Willian and Auba to 3 years contract. You wish that money has gone instead to younger players on the development squad.

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