There are worrying reports circulating this morning that Arsenal have already agreed to let our little Spaniard Santi Cazorla return to Spain this summer with Atletico Madrid.
Cazorla has been one of our star players this season and held the side together (along with Alexis Sanchez) when the side was decimated with injuries for the first half of the season. And yesterday’s game against Middlesbrough showed the world that Santi could play effectively alongside Mesut Ozil, a combination that was thought to be mutually exclusive until now.
In fact Arsene Wenger stated after the game that there was no Arsenal player that could match either of those two. He said: “The first thing that goes with confidence is the spontaneous activity in the game. Even if you are confident without the technical quality of Ozil and Cazorla, you can go together on the pitch. Even if you are confident I’m not sure you can repeat what they can do.”
I can understand that, at 30 years of age, Cazorla would have the desire to finish his career in his home country, where he has spent his whole career except for his three and a half seasons at Arsenal. So I guess it would not be such a surprise to find this is true in the big scheme of things, but Cazorla would be a great loss to the Gunners.
The fact is, though, that every player has a sell-by date, and Arsenal have a great quantity of highly talented midfielders and could probably survive without him. If Wenger was to let him go, I seriously hope that he has his eye on a much younger and just-as-talented replacement in mind to bring in in the summer….