Unai Emery has singled out Dani Ceballos for praise this week, naming his as a player with an ‘incredible mentality’, before asserting that he will end the campaign well.
The Spanish midfielder joined on a season-long loan from Real Madrid last summer having fallen down the pecking order with his parent club. Ceballos went onto earn a regular role in the early part of the campaign, only to be sidelined with an injury.
By the time that Dani had returned from injury, his fellow Spaniard would no longer be in charge however, with the club having dropped down to the bottom half of the table after an extended run of dire results.
Emery remains without a new club, but has come out to praise the decision to sign Ceballos on a temporary deal, not that he hasn’t shown enough on the pitch himself.
‘Dani is a player who has excellent qualities and an incredible mentality: he wants to succeed,’ Emery claimed.
‘For Arsenal it was a great market opportunity.
‘He played with me, then he was injured and he was out for a long time, he has recovered and now, when the league resumes, he will certainly demonstrate his qualities again.’
Emery went onto to reveal that he is spending a lot of his free time of late watching the beautiful game, admitting that he hoping to return to Spanish football in the near future.
‘At the moment, I am watching a lot of football, and the lockdown situation invites it,’ said Emery.
‘More Spanish, I have to say, but I am not ruling anything out.
‘I will be where they want me and they show it to me, where the project is attractive, to be able to be in Champions or Europa League, but I do not close the door to anything.’
Ceballos has already impressed in North London this term, and nobody would expect any different if/when football does return, although due to the effect on finances that the Coronavirus has had, there is huge question marks over whether we will be able to afford the asking price of the 23 year-old.
We are currently in a catch 22 situation, where should he impress enough on the pitch that he could raise his value, therefore potentially pricing ourselves out of a possible deal, while not doing enough on the pitch would also hamper a deal.
Am I alone in doubting that our club will make this move permanent this summer? Could another loan deal be the only realistic view on seeing him in our famous red next term?
Patrick
