The news that poor Danny Welbeck has suffered cartilage damage to his left knee, just 15 games after recovering from similar damage to his right knee that kept him out of the Arsenal side for nearly a year, is an incredibly cruel blow just as he was approaching full fitness for the Euros.
The ex-Man United striker has a great record with the Three Lions, but with the emergence of Jamie Vardy and Harry Kane it is unlikely he will be sorely missed by the England squad.
But more worrying is the fact that he is unlikely, again, to be anywhere near fit for the beginning of next season.We all know what happened last summer when it seemed that Wenger deliberately put off telling us fans that Welbeck needed another operation until the day after the transfer window had firmly shut.
At the same time Wenger justified the reasons for not buying another striker because he already had three World Class strikers in Giroud, Walcott and Welbeck. He certainly won’tbe able to use that excuse this summer after Giroud went on a four month non-scoring streak, and Walcott and Welbeck only contibuted only 9 goals between them in 39 League appearances, added to the 13 that Giroud added gave usameasly return of just 22 League goals between all three “World Class” strikers. This is the real reason why Arsenal failed to take advantage this season and win the Premier League.
We all knew last summer that Wenger’s excuses were weak, but surely he can’t possibly imagine that he can do exactly the same this summer. In fact we are really going to need two strikers as Walcott must surely be allowed to move on this summer and we can keep Giroud as a backup.
Darren