Bernd Leno has been talking in preparation for his reunion with Arsenal this week.
This is what he shared with the Evening Standard: “I don’t have toxic feelings or bad energy for Arsenal. It didn’t end the perfect way but my reception at the Emirates was very good. I get fans coming up to me saying ‘thank you for your four years …. you were very good’.
It’s great that the 31-year-old is professional enough to not be bitter about his time in North London and that Gooners are respectful when meeting him in person. There’s certainly zero reason to question the German’s work ethic and desire when he was a Gunner. It’s simply a case of his statement …. well it isn’t true is it?
He wasn’t very good. If he was very good he wouldn’t have been dropped in the first place, and with all respects to Fulham, a bigger queue would have formed with his asking price only 8 million.
It took a section of our fanbase way too long to realise he made too many errors to be trusted at the level we aspire to be. The same people who called 8th and 5th progress and a ‘fine season’?
There was a period where supporters debated he was the third best keeper in the division, despite being in goal for factually our worst League finish in 25 years!
His mistakes contributed to there being zero European Football at Arsenal for the first time in quarter of a century.
The Everton winner that slipped through his hands?
The red card at Wolves?
Running out to claim corners and leaving an open goal for Chelsea and Brentford to score?
Charging out of goal so Benfica could walk the ball in?
Literally passing the ball so Vienna could score?
Just to name a few ……
Wasn’t he partly responsible for our winner on his return to his former club?
His lack of awareness is incredible, almost bordering on arrogance how he takes zero accountability for why he is no longer our number one.
This statement tells you why he’s not our number One anymore: “I was happy with my performance. Even when they dropped me, I did nothing wrong.’
There’s a difference between believing in yourself and having faith in your ability compared to not taking any accountability when something goes wrong.
After his original transfer he blamed politics for the reason of his exit. On international duty he would inform his national media that his manager had never bothered to tell him what he had done that warranted being dropped.
There have been too much talent Arteta has given up on if he feels they don’t match his ethos. In his first job he’s been allowed by his employers to wash hands of assets, paying them to sit at home, ripping up contracts, etc, instead of training and teaching, getting the best out of the resources he has. There are too many names for there not to to be something about that.
Top sports people though are able to assess their own performance, they don’t need to informed what they do well or not well.
In Amazon’s All Or Nothing Series Ramsdale sat in the dressing room downbeat after letting a Liverpool goal beat him at his near post. Long after his peers had left, he remained sat with his head down.
There were other parts of the documentar, where we won but he was frustrated at not keeping a clean sheet. That’s a difference in the mentality between the two goalies.
Once a Gooner always a Gooner.
No one can fault Leno’s effort, but for anyone to say his 4 years were a success are wrong.
Dan
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