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.