It did not go down very well with a lot of Arsenal fans when Arsene Wenger seemed to put up no fight to keep our captain at the time Thomas Vermaelen from making the transfer to Spain to play for La Liga giants Barcelona in a deal that was worth around £15 million.
Injury problems and poor form from the Belgian probably helped to make the manager’s decision easier though, as did the very good looking partnership between Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny, and when Vermaelen then spent almost the whole of his debut season in the Barca treatment room it looked like Wenger had played a blinder.
The centre back featured a lot more in his second season and he has just done his reputation no harm at all with his performances for Belgium at Euro 2016, although he was unable to help them avoid an early exit because he was suspended for the quarter-final clash with Wales.
But all this has not been enough to convince the Catalan club who are ready to let him go. According to the Spanish sports website Sport there are already good offers on the table from Italy’s Serie A club Roma and others but the report claims that the 30-year old is holding out for a return to the Premier League, with West Ham said to be interested.
I think it might go even further than that and Vermaelen is actually hoping for a return to Arsenal, especially as he knows we are in need of defensive cover with the BFG beginning to look too slow for the modern game. What do you guys make of this situation?
Bob.
no way ! he is injury prone ! v need a cb who can give us much needed stability at defence !
nw janssen has also gone to spurs and v r preparing to hear from wenger that no one was available !
Nooooo!!!!!!! You mean another club signed someone?
Vermaelen when fit + in form
was a fine player.
But that was 5 years ago.
He left Arsenal injured out of form
and with no confidence.
At Barca he was injured in season one
and a bench/fringe player in season two.
Hull, Watford or Bournmouth perhaps?
We don’t need him when we already have Mertesacker who is getting too old. We need YOUNG blood and furthermore what kind of message does it send when we consider bringing back players that left us for a bigger club ? If he left it’s his problem not ours, players should know that Arsenal isn’t a place you come to for comfort otherwise no one will be committed to playing for the badge.
According to the Express we had a £25 million bid for Rugani rejected
I don’t really believe Wenger would pay that much for a Centre Back
And he is 4th in Juventus’ CB pecking order
Look at who is in front of him.
If perhaps by some miracle we signed higuain I’d quite happily see vermaelen return on the cheap .xhaka higuain and vermaelen would be a pretty decent summer window (for our standards)
If there’s one former gunner still playing I’d love to see back at the Emirates it’s definitely tv5.. the passion and pride he wore the kit with will never be erased from my memory.
Injured too often, sorry verminator ?
OT: Juve’s €34m bid for Alexis is so pathetic. How on earth could Alexis be that cheap when Draxler is valued at €52m and Pogba around €100m.
Really?
why not bring back Liam Brady and perhaps Bob Mcnab?
lol its like the Van Persie story we consider bringing them back if they are cheap and there for Sh!t but when they are playing well (like fabregas) we dont want them cos they aint needed.
what a load of old cobblers
Can you not use swearwords please…..
It is quite refreshing to find a refuge on the net away from abuse and potty mouthery and I’m fully sold on it but surely it was an acceptable vulgarism rater than swearing?
If he says sh!t he means sh!t, and as such is still swearing. If used again my filter will immediately put the comment in moderation….
Ahh, I thought you meant old cobblers! my apologies 😀