When Danny Welbeck joined Arsenal 15 months ago it was a bit of a surprise (aren’t all Arsenal’s transfers surprises?) but we had high hopes of him settling in quickly as he had played over 140 games for Man United and was becoming a regular in the England team. What we didn’t expect was for him to be another injury problem, but he has now been on the treatment table since April last season.
As has come up through the ranks with England he regularly played with our other England players like Jack Wilshere, Kieran Gibbs, Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Calum Chambers, although he obviously hasn’t played with them much lately.
“It was a new challenge but it was an exciting time for me to approach a new situation, move from Manchester to London and all of the stuff that goes with it,”
“Knowing the England boys from international duty and growing up with them in the youth teams made it easy. They integrate you into the group a lot easier with the other lads as well.
“It was a whole new city, not completely new as I’d been to London before, but it was weird knowing that I was going to be calling London home and not Manchester.
“The thing that you miss the most is your family and that’s the most important thing. A lot of my family and friends do come to London to see me anyway. They come to all the home games so I get to see them quite a lot anyway.
“But I was leaving something that I knew after growing up in Manchester, coming to a new city, it’s an exciting period.”
Welbeck clearly has some talent, but so do Wilshere, Walcott and The Ox, who are all currently under the medics at the moment as well. Why does it always seem to be the English players that suffer recurring injuries the most? Maybe it’s not the Arsenal training methods, but the England youth set up?