Bookmakers are tipping David Luiz as never to play football for Arsenal again after his disasterclass last night.
The Brazilian came off the bench last night after an injury to Pablo Mari with the scores still level, and left the pitch 25 minutes later with his team now a goal behind, and having given their opponents Manchester City a penalty to put the game out of reach.
This was not the positive return to action as we had hoped for, having won three consecutive league outings prior to the Coronavirus, but without these two key David Luiz moments, the game could very much have turned out differently…
Following the match, the defender came out to talk to the press in an unprecedented manner, and moved to claim that his team-mates had done nothing wrong, and that he was to blame for the loss, but more interestingly, he goes onto blame his contract situation, and almost appears to be pleading with the club to give him an extension.
Nothing about this whole scenario screams ‘give Luiz a new deal’ personally, and Ladbrokes clearly don’t think so either.
The firm have priced up a market on whether the former Chelsea star will ever feature for the Gunners again, and strongly favour that he will not with odds of 8/15 (1.53) that he will not, and 11/8 (2.375) for him to feature for the side again.
I wouldn’t tell anybody to bet on the market of course, but I will list the facts of the matter which should be taken into consideration below:
• Luiz is currently set to become a free agent on July 1
• He is currently banned for the next two matches (with only nine more remaining this term)
• He has zero sell on value should we extend
• He has made it clear that he wants to play elsewhere
• William Saliba is already signed and ready to stake a claim next season
• The Coronavirus pandemic has forced us to be more stringent with our finances
• HE IS DAVID LUIZ!
With such a young, vibrant and exciting squad, surely we would be better off letting the liability that is David Luiz leave the club this summer and build a team around the young stars that are already flourishing in and around the team.
Will Arteta ever forgive the 33 year-old for his antics last night? Will the Spaniard really give in and extend his contract?
Patrick