Arsenal are forever being linked with a number of players, but I cannot tell you how frustrating it is to see us strongly linked with those who spent large amounts of time on the sidelines.
We are currently being linked with possible moves to sign Barcelona stars Ousmane Dembele and Samuel Umtiti in the coming window, with both having struggled to earn regular runs in their current first-teams largely down to injuries.
The former was a big-money signing from Borussia Dortmund, with the Catalan club believed to have paid an initial £96.8 Million for his signature, a fee that could have risen to as much as £135.5 Million including bonuses, but he has only managed to start in 35 matches in three seasons with the club.
Umtiti has featured more heavily for his side in comparison, but has only featured in 70 La Liga appearances over the last four seasons predominantly missing out because of fitness and injuries.
Arsenal have suffered enough over the years with injuries to our key players, with the likes of Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey, Santi Cazorla, Hector Bellerin, Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez just a few to mention in recent years who regularly were sidelined.
I really hope that the likes of Umtiti and Dembele are simply linked with our club because Arsenal headlines attract the most attention, and not that we are looking to take risks on players who will more likely than not end up cashing a pay-check from the stands.
New manager Mikel Arteta himself suffered with a number of injuries himself while at the club, and will hopefully know all-too-well how difficult it can be to return to full fitness after so many setbacks, and will hopefully not take such risks with our transfer budget.
Do players maximum potential have to be considered when eyeing a potentially injury-prone player? Do both of the above have enough exceptional talent to be considered for moves even if they could only play 50% of matches?
Patrick
The Answer is YES.
I suggest that the reason for having medicals before signing a player is to determine any current or former injuries that might impede said players performances.
Apart from this rigorous testing, the rest is pure luck as to how the players career unfolds.
No Ken, not entirely luck. Physique has a bearing on how often one is injured and how long recovery takes. Such as Wilshere caused many of his ankle injuries by foolish 30/70 challenges against far bigger, more pwerful oppponents, so intelligence is another crucial factor. Luck certianly plays a PART but is far from being the only reason.
Torreira is going the same way, even though his game is built around regaining possession. But surely you have also noticed, as I have, how SOME skinny bags of bones like Kante, use their brains and technique to intercept rather than end up on the floor in agony by tackling.
I always had Wilshere down as a player who was none too bright and the evidence shows that, both in his lifestyle when young and in the hopelessly ambitious tackles.
After watching any player regularly for a while it is easy to work out who are bright and who are not. Such as Bergkamp, Alan Smith were clearly bright; such as Wright were not, however lovable he was!
Our problem wasn’t so much buying injury-prone players, it was sticking by them forever during their time at Arsenal…and only one man to blame for that!