Rio Ferdinand has revealed how he met Serge Gnabry in the summer shortly after he had agree to leave Arsenal, and how he vowed to work hard to get back on track.
The Germany and Bayern Munich star may look back on that summer and believe he made the right decision for his future, and nobody could argue with him, although Arsenal will no doubt regret not having given him the tools to succeed in North London.
Former England and Manchester United defender has revealed how he met Gnabry in the summer that he had agreed to leave the North London club, and that the winger was distraught at his current standing, and vowed to work hard to get where he wanted to be, and clearly he did.
Ferdinand told BT Sport (via the Mirror): “I was on a beach in Dubai just chilling, just watching the day go by and he came along with Hector Bellerin.
“We just had a chat, sitting on the sun lounger, and he was really down. He’d lost confidence and was starting to just rebuild his career and try to build himself back up.
“He’d just gone to Germany and he was saying it was hard work he was just going to get on, get his head down and here we are today.
“It just shows that if you keep chipping away as a young payer, you get a chance, you’re going to get knock backs but it’s how you react to that.
“He’s reacted in the best way possible. Applied himself right and he’s got his rewards. A great young lad.”
I can’t help but wonder if he had put the work in before deciding to leave Arsenal if he would have gotten more opportunities, or whether his failed loan spell with West Brom was the major downfall in his Arsenal future, but I remain happy for our former youngster who of course enjoyed Champions League success last night with Bayern.
Do we blame the player or the club for his failure to break into the first-team at Arsenal?
Patrick
I am bitter at the way he left us when he was underperforming and injured the club stuck by him,once he was back to fitness and had a good tournament with Germany, attracting interest once again,he was gone.,at one stage he was unfit, overweight and couldn’t get a game for West Brom,you can’t blame Arsenal for it.
Please please don’t start with this same “the club stood by him and he left” cliché crap.
We’re so used to using this statement to avoid the truth.
The club or the player isn’t to be blamed here.
The real culprit here I’d Tony Pulis who said terrible things to a young boy, sent him to West Brom reserves and completely ruined his confidence.
Also, if the club really wanted to stand by him, why wasn’t he called back when they saw how Pulis was clearly treating the boy?
I’m glad he left, he did, and he fought back and now he’s tight where he deserves to be
Remember he was getting games under wenger in 2013 but got injured over and over again then wenger send him to w brom then when things wasnt going his way we brought him back and work on him to get fit then he went with germany to the tournament performed well then left after when we were giving him a contract.wenger said all of this even when far as saying bayern manipulate the situation by allowing werder bremen to sign him then sign him after which look true to me only thing i wrong arsenal for is not giving a contract after he returned from w brom in january just to build his confidence but thats understandibly cuz u would want to see how he perform first but its one of those things
Is Pulis to blame? Why send a player like Gnabry to play under a manager like Pulis? Can’t be surprised he was not played by him. It’s poor from Arsenal to just send out a youth prospect like Gnabry to any old club, espescially one that does not align with our philosophy at all. That said, I’m overjoyed for Gnabry and i dont think he’d be even twice the player he is now if he stayed with us. We were not producing any youth players around that time besides for Bellerin. We let many highly talented players just slip between the cracks and fade away during that period of time.
You can’t blame the player or the club…must we always blame someone?okay if you must blame someone, blame Tony Pulis.
In Foobtall, this will always happen, Gnabry’s case is not the first and won’t be the last.
Look at Sancho that was let go by City, see how much he is worth today.
It was well reported that we offered him a new contract which he turned down, what would Wenger have done, tie him down?
Managers are humans not soothsayers or seers, and in this case I can’t even blame Wenger…just be happy for him and move on already!
👍🏾
You gain some and lose some.
That’s life. Out of 100’s of youngsters we have let go in 15 years how many have gone on to do what Gnabry has done? You can’t predict the future.
3/100’s of our former youngster have made it in like 15 years?
Lets not kid ourselves.
Sometimes it just takes a big change or shock to motivate..
..It motivated Gnabry in a very positive way. A way that he was not able to do for Arsenal. No one is to blame and we should all acknowledge his achievement after a difficult spell as a youngster in a sport that is fierce for competition!