Hector Bellerin has been a revelation since breaking into the Arsenal first team a couple of years ago, and after signing a new long term contract earlier this season it seemed like he was set to be an Arsenal legend of the future, but since then things have started to go downhill.
He has had some niggling injuries and even he admitted that he was not as efficient as last season, and now he is spending most of his time on the Gunners bench since Wenger changed his formation and he could be becoming frustrated with his missed opportunities. Now his agent has admitted that there are still big clubs interested in the young Spaniard despite the new contract, but none of them is his hometown club Barcelona.
His agent Albert Botines explained Bellerin’s situation like this. “Before he signed his renewal there were six or seven clubs interested in him, and that made him understand he was doing the right things,” Botines said.
“After he signed the renewal there were only two or three clubs who kept up their interest in Bellerin, and I have to say I only received one offer for him and it is not from Barcelona.
“I have read lots of things about this supposed interest from Barcelona but it has been a long time since the club last called me.
“You never know what is going to happen in the future in the football world and of course he signed a renewal with a view to stay at Arsenal for a long time.
“But you never know, maybe there’s a club who likes him and things change. I can’t guarantee anything about the future but the natural thing would be for him to stay because he has signed a renewal.”
“This season he has had good times and bad times, he started pretty well and was able to sign a long contract on very favourable terms with the intention of staying long-term,”
“This season was hard after the Champions League elimination, it is true there’s a cup final to play and that will make this disappointment easier to accept.
“The injury in his ankle didn’t allow him to show his best form like in the previous season, and in addition he felt an injury relapse after receiving a hit during a game with Spain Under-21s.
“It is true he is playing less than last season but there’s nothing strange about that because it is part of a footballer’s life and he knows that.
“Of course he wants to play more often but he understands that he suffered some difficulties during this season and will work hard to become an important player for the team again.”
So it sounds like Bellerin is happy to fight for his place, but if Wenger (or the next manager) intends to carry on with the new 3-4-3 setup, could it be even harder for Hector to get more chances in his preferred position. Do you think the Gunners should cash in on Bellerin or hope he goes back to his old form next season?
Darren N
Yes he has potential but defensively he’s not the best and he cannot cross. His pace gets him out of things, I’m sure we can buy better for less money
Gibbs has pace, Walcott has pace, you don’t see pace alone doing a great deal to get them out of things. Gibbs has made a hash of things for years. Walcott just doesn’t have the know-how to make it a proper advantage, and the at other end he can’t even make it doable. Oxlade was poor in instances over a number of seasons, his pace wasn’t getting him out of anything. If it was pace alone you would see hundred’s of Walcotts playing football, I used to play with kids that were much faster than me, it never counted for much at all. It only makes a big difference if the player knows how to best to use it. I’ve seen plenty of quick defenders that were basically s**t, I think it’s laziness when people write like that.
Not sure what you mea,n Bellerin isn’t the best at defending or crossing so what your point
Of course not. Keep Bellerin
Get rid of Jenks and Debuchy and sign another talented RB to push Bellerin
(Unless a Top club wants to give ridiculous money for him)
As for LB we should sell either Monreal or Gibbs and sign a better LB
We should be improving our squad by getting rid of players who are average or injury prone and sign better quality players
Better keep him, because he is a talented youngster. His form became bad because he didn’t have real competitor. Now there is Chamberlain. I just hope he would be as good as Dani Alves in the end.
Well maybe he got complacent since Debuchy and Jenkinson are garbage.
He was in the PFA Team of the Season last year, we would be idiots even to consider selling him.
Buy competition for him. But only if we get a forward, a winger, a central midfielder and a centre back first.
I do not think we need to buy a RWB this 12 months, if the rebuild is true then it will be over 2 years and that will give Ox 12 months to play that role and to develop his def side of the game, when Ox is moved centrally then it will pay off.
A CF is needed, Welbroke isn’t good enough and the board should never have bought him over the loan deal which Wenger wanted, in the end it was a waste of money that could have been put towards a better CF. Welbroke is a fantastic footballer but a pathetic striker, his mentality isn’t the type to look at scoring 1st then setting up team after… he likes to keep the ball in play and not take as many risks to try and score.
Giroud is more than good enough to be a sub and I like him a lot as a sub, we just need someone like Lacazette to be 1st choice.
I wonder about wingers, if we are going to use this 343 formation a lot more then a wide forward would be better, a better Theo basically. Theo is a winger, well a winger that I grew up knowing 😛 The 3 forwards will be the main offencive players on the pitch and if the wide forwards drop too deep to defend then we will only have 1 player to hoof the ball up to and I do not like hoofball.
I would like to see a better CM to partner Xhaka, I have been saying all season that I would have loved to see Kante play alongside Xhaka as I felt we needed both. I hope this season we can find our own Kante, maybe Gueye? He is what… 27? so prime years now? When Ox is in his prime then Gueye would be past his prime and can make for a nice transition?
I wouldn’t say no to a better left sided CB for the 3 CB formation.
3 fears over this area though, 1 is Monreal… if we get a new LB/LWB then we will only need Gibbs as backup which frees up Monreal. See where I am going with this? 😛
2nd fear is the trio of young CBs we have, Chambers/Holding/Bielik. Although I like Holding and like to see him play the left CB when Kos is fit, Bielik and Chambers have done well and they could be seen as ‘new signings’ by a certain old manager.
3rd fear is money, I read today we will have £200 million to spend but I think that is BS, we will have £100 million to spend plus whatever we can make from sales. Unless Silent Stan changes his business idea of self sustaining then we will not get more than what we make, make from where though? Ticket sales is my opinion, we spend roughly what we make in ticket sales and why selling those season tickets are so damned important at the start.
No….He has looked slow and sluggish ever since he has come back from injury and it did look like we rushed him back in rather than allowing him to ease back, mainly due to a lack of cover, which also might have dulled his hunger a bit, thankfully tho with the recent performances of Ox he has been given a rest… hopefully he can perform back to his best now…
At the moment he’s not doing the business because every time he gets into the final third he cuts inside instead of driving for the byline and getting in a cross (which he was doing well last season). This is exactly the same problem I saw with Gibbs a couple of seasons ago and I don’t understand why AW isn’t taking the players aside and talking to them about this. Perhaps he actually wants them to play like this, but as far as I can see this seriously reduces our options for breaking down difficult teams which are just happy to sit and defend the 16 yard line in the centre of the pitch.
I think he can be a better wing back than the Ox who I’d like to see central.
No, esp not just because of a formation, the option to play many different ones needs to be there. Bellerin was one of the best in his position for a couple seasons previously, he and his teammates are just having confidence issues. He made some mistakes and it spiraled a bit. Last season Bellerin was best young or old fullback, this season it’s going to Walker, should spu have got rid of Walker in one of the previous seasons.
We all want our youngsters to make it to the first team. We have one here that got his place by destroying a full French international. He’s still young, I think people are being overly harsh because of how good Bellerin looked, and people just love to kick someone who has fallen from grace. Bellerin will learn, he’ll also learn some things about our fans.
Of-effin-course not! He had a great season last season, that means he can have more of those. He’s young, he’s fast, I’m sure he’s ready to learn. Give him as many chances while he’s young.
My Fat Gut instincts tells me that he is going to be sold in the summer, which would explains why Bellerin is mainly on the bench of late, keeping him injury free and fit as they do,especially when a bid has been accepted. Remember that City are also interested in him and Bellerin was flattered with the idea of working under Pep. Yes, Wenger won’t wanna sell to our rivals but if their offer was/is a great one (maybe a player plus cash deal) then I’m sure that he will be sold.
Our greedy owner/Board will be looking to rack in 80-100 million through sales to fund for our new cheapooh transfer arrivals. So be prepared for more misery during the summer… Again!
Bellerins confidence has been knocked and playing him at the right time could have been a better aid to bring his confidence back rather than throwing him in game after game even though we had the Ox who could do that and if Bellerin form was out then WTF is Wenger doing picking a player out of form… He hasn’t and it must mean Bellerin is being sold?
Did aliens build the pyramids?
Lizard people in the earth mind controlling you?
The universe took 7 days to create?
If we are gonna spew nonsense out then lets have some fun doing that 😛
No, we shouldn’t sell him, he has had a bad season and all of a sudden he should be sold?
We have 2 young very good players who can play the right wing back, if we sold him we would only have to replace him and I doubt we would get any better for the money we will get.
Ox might only be playing RWB for another 12 months, if he can show a good strong tackle at RWB and also get forward and make an impact as much as he has done then it is perfect for arguing to move into CM who will need to do those things but centrally.
We may be looking for a RWB in 12 months time if we do not buy one now and TBH, we could spend the cash better now on getting roles we need NOW.
Bellerin is young and has shown he has talent. His game is raw but with the right manager, he could become a world class left back IMO. It is crucial at this stage of his career that he gets to work with experienced defenders/coaches. He needs to be schooled in positioning, the timing of his runs going forward and final ball.
I have the impression, but I might be wrong, that Wenger is not so detailed orientated when it comes to training. It seems to me major failing of his players is a lack of discipline and know-how on what is expected from them and where they are supposed to be on the pitch at what time (this of course also depends on where their teammates are). This might explain why our youngsters seem to plateau before others do. But IMO, Bellerin, Ox, Iwobi all have the technical abilities to become great players. It seems like they just need to be micro managed.
What struck me in our recent game against Spurs, and Spurs’ game against Chelsea is that their young players like Alli seemed very self-assured on what they were supposed to do and where they were supposed to be on the pitch. I look at Iwobi and Bellerin and even Ox and sometimes they are so far out of position that you wonder if anyone ever manages them one-on-one and in great detail.
Spot-on. Knowing what to do in situations comes from experience. Young players by definition have less of this, and need to learn by benefiting from the experience of the coach.
If the coach doesn’t work with them closely, then how are they supposed to fulfil their potential? To me this seems exactly why our young players seem to “Plateau” instead of becoming world-beaters.
Bellerin seems like the natural choice to be the right-wing-back in the new formation. Don’t get me wrong, the Ox is great, but never thought of him as a right-back in any capacity.