Due to a multitude of injury problems, Arsenal’s little Spanish maestro Santi Cazorla only played 7 League games for the Gunners last season, and only played 15 in the previous campaign, so you imagine that the 33 year-old is close to finishing his career at the top. But while Cazorla was on the operating table, Arsene Wenger gave the midfielder a one-year extension to his contract in the hope that he would be able to rejoin the team again this season.
But it is now looking like a forlorn hope, as Santi has just revealed that he has now had yet another operation this week after his hopeful prediction that he would be rejoining the Gunners first team in January, so perhaps it’s time for him to accept his retirement gracefully? “As a result of some discomfort in the tendon that I had been suffering in recent days, I have had to go into theatre again,” Cazorla wrote on Twitter. “I have to put back the date for my return to the field. I still have the motivation and the hope of being able to return to enjoying my great passion, football.”
That was very loyal and generous of Arsenal to give Cazorla a new contract and an extra few million in the bank while he is on the treatment table, but perhaps Wenger should have seen this coming and instead invested those funds on the wages for a replacement midfielder?
As much I would love to have Santi back playing at his best it is becoming extremely unlikely that that is going to happen ever again. I don’t begrudge him the money, unless it means that he is taking up a useless space in the squad that could go to someone younger and fitter.
Is it time to face the fact that Cazorla is now past his sell-by-date….
Darren N