It is hard to argue too much with the comments from Alan Pardew about Arsenal this week. After all the current Crystal Palace manager was in charge of Newcastle United back in August of 2013 when Arsene Wenger reportedly place a transfer bid of around £10 million for the central midfielder.
Pardew was aware that Cabaye wanted to come to Arsenal as he dropped him from the starting line up until his head was right. And he clearly knows Cabaye well and thinks a lot of him, because he recently signed him for his new club Crystal Palace, who Arsenal face away from home this weekend in the Premier League.
Maybe the timing is a bit naughty, but Pardew has every right to talk about what Cabaye could have done in the Arsenal team. As reported by The Mirror, he feels that the Frenchman would still walk into our starting XI.
Pardew said, “He would have made a great Arsenal player.
“But let’s be honest, he has an abundance of talent in the midfield and I don’t think that if Yo had gone at that time, whether he would have got into that Arsenal team, he would have had to fight.
“He’s a fantastic player, we are honoured to have him and he is definitely the level of Arsenal players. I don’t think Arsene Wenger or anyone at Arsenal would disagree with that.
“We have a player who could definitely play in their team and that is a nice feeling for us.”
So considering that Wenger did try to sign him before, why do you think he did not do so again this summer? Is it because of the emergence of Ramsey and Coquelin, whose form since that August transfer bid has improved remarkably? Or is it just that Wenger was only trying to sign Cabaye then if he could get the deal done on the cheap?
And finally, with the Arsenal boss be left wishing that maybe he should have gone to PSG for Cabaye this summer?