Arsene Wenger tries to explain why Serge Gnabry slipped through the net.
Arsene Wenger has revealed how Arsenal missed out on keeping Serge Gnabry further after he left them to join Werder Bremen four years ago.
Gnabry signed his first professional contract with Arsenal in 2012 before struggling to break into their first team.
He was shipped out on loan to West Brom at the latter end of his Gunners stay and never made any sort of breakthrough.
He went to the Euros with the German Under21 and did well, he soon left for Germany after the competition.
However, Wenger has claimed that Arsenal had an agreement in place for him to sign an extension.
The former Arsenal boss also added that there was a problem with Gnabry’s game and went on to reveal what it was, according to Standard Sports.
“This guy, he has no real limitations – it’s more how much does he want to suffer,” Wenger said.
“Because he has pace, power, technical ability – he’s very intelligent.
“Sometimes he looks for the easy way in football. That’s what was his problem.
“He lacked a bit. I gave him to West Brom, it didn’t work out at all. In fairness, I think we had an agreement with him but Bayern stole him away from Werder Bremen.
“He’s a good player, he needs good players of course, like everybody, but he has individual ability and collective ability.
“We had an agreement with him but because he didn’t play at West Brom I let him go with the Under-21s in the summer with the German national team.
“He did very well of course, he was fresh. We had prepared him for us to sign his new contract but then suddenly he wanted to go to Werder Bremen.”
I have to admit that I am not at all convinced by what Wenger has said here, on one hand, he was gifted and the club did actually want to keep him but at the same time, he lacked a bit, whatever that bit was and that he was looking at an easy way in football.
Seems that Wenger got this one wrong and is struggling to justify it.
I would be interested to know, what the easy option is? I know at the time he never gave Gnabry muc of a chance.
Weber never gave Gnabry a chance?
The things you guys will say every single time to justify throwing shades at Wenger though, including you AdMartin.
You do realize Gnabry was a 17 years old who was playing well for the team and got multiple chances from Wenger till he got that long term injury and he had to be loaned out to raise his fitness level.
You do realize Gnabry was playing for us and was the next thing after Chamberlain back then right?
No, let’s pretend Wenger was the man who ruined this one when he just loaned Gnabry out only for Tony Pulis to have nothing but negative words to say bout Gnabry who he never gave a chance at West Brom.
Let’s pretend at that time the club wasn’t looking to give Gnabry a new deal and loan him out before the player himself decided he wasn’t gon sign.
Let’s all pretend Wenger is the one who f**ks shît up every time.
No idea why you invoked my name in your comment. I hardly ever comment on him.
But we aren’t pretending. The first part of the problem was actually loaning him to Pulis and his style of play and after that it was all badly dealt with, fact. Wenger never trusted or really thought Gnabry was good enough, even now.
Good point, Reggie. Dont understand why any Arsenal player would be loaned to a Pulis team unless they are a CB.
You got it completely wrong,I can bring you quotes from Wenger from few years ago and when we bought him,he already said that Gnabry was going to be a top player when he was only 17 years old,his latest comments have been taken out of context,Wenger was he needed to do to get to the next level ,also Gnabry just before the Chelsea game confirmed everything Wenger said,that it was him who wanted to leave even though wanted to keep him and offer a new contract.
Not saying you arent wrong Siamois but the handling of Gnabry was not great and i would imagine Gnabry quickly worked out his situation when he got shipped off to WBA for cloggit football. Gnabry himself decided his services were not appreciated. You dont send a 17 year old Ronaldo, of you rate him to the likes of Pulis. He wanted to play football and the only time that happened was in Germany away from Arsenal. It doesn’t take much working out to see he didn’t think he had a future at Arsenal.
I also attribute it to fans impatience. We don’t give players much chance. Gnabry was one familiar scapegoat while here.
Really? I can’t ever remember being at a game that Gnarby played where the fans were negative towards him.In fact Arsenal fans tend to give the young players support up until its obvious they are not good enough.Gnarby was never given the chance for the fans to be negative towards him
Agree Phil, i remember fans wanting him in the team more. On the sites i go on, it was a theme that fans wanted him played. But i do agree that our youth can get a rough time by some fans when they dont perform to their expectations, which is not good.
Agree, I remember Ramsey being played at RW ( disaster) when there were other options, even as a sub.
I’m not totally blaming Wenger, but his lack of chances does give some blame to Wenger.
No one gets it right all the time, but the club missed on this one as Gnabry is clearly showing.
Chalk it up to learning, and let’s try to avoid repeating that miatake.
Point being, when team gets healthy, move Saka to LW with a healthy Tierney as LB. I’m actually excited to see that partnership on the left.
You made a good point about him not being appreciated and not thinking he had a future with us, there is a reason he left us.
Yeah, not buying this. It was simply a mistake, but I think necessary for Gnabry’s development to leave. Wenger is right that he struggled in England, with injuries especially and Im surprised AW didn’t mention the fact he was out for over a year at one point and kind of faded away from first team after a bright start. I do recall fans always wanting to see more too…
Considering Wenger disliked Pulis and especially his style of football, it’s highly probable, almost sure, that after his long-term injury West Brom were the only English team offering to loan Gnabry and give him regular football.
Which they then didn’t. Hardly Wenger’s fault.
After that Gnabry refused to extend his contract and decided to head to Germany instead.
More bad luck than Wenger’s fault, me thinks.
Let’s not cry over spilt milk. We cannot keep everybody happy by keeping them.
Gnabry may be doing well now but we don’t miss him (he was in that team and our youngsters still won them during preseason). We have a dozen upcoming talented youngsters who can become stars for us if we manage them well.
Enough with all the blames and counter blames, because when a player decides to change clubs, there is little anyone can do to change that.
Gily is right,we are not the first and only club to have let go of or missed on good players,look at Chelsea de bruyne,Salah,they even bought back Matic for double the price,man utd turned down Martinelli,the spuds had the opportunity to buy Grealish on the cheap 18 months ago,look at Danny ings banging the goals for saints now but was unlucky with injuries at pool,time is a rare commodity in football these days!!
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