Morning all.
Let’s kick off with some Tomas Rosicky who, like many of our chaps, is away on international duty. It’s not uncommon for players to speak more freely when surrounded by local press, and that seems to be the case with him as he’s made it quite clear he’s unhappy with what’s going on at the moment.
Before the final game of the season Arsene Wenger confirmed at his press conference that the club had taken up the option to extend Rosicky’s contract by another year. And from what the Czech international is saying, it sounds as if this was something that was agreed to in the terms of his contract, but out of his hands when it comes to the final decision.
Ahead of their game against Iceland on Friday, Rosicky said of his current situation:
Since the moment Arsene Wenger used the option in my contract, I haven’t been even on the bench. I am laughing but it’s not funny. It’s frustrating but I am a professional. Even if you lose your place, you must be still prepared because the situation can change.
He didn’t make the squad for the FA Cup final and anecdotal reports suggested he looked a little distant from the celebrations on the day. His last appearance was in the 0-0 against Sunderland when he got on for 9 minutes at the end. Before that, you have to go back to March 21st for his previous outing (as a sub against Newcastle) and he made only three starts from the time of the Brighton FA Cup game to the QPR win at Loftus Road on March 4th (thanks Lukasz!)
So, as much as I love Tomas Rosicky, and he’s a player I wish we’d seen a lot more of during his time at the club, I have to admit I was kind of surprised we took up that option for another year. When everyone’s fit, he certainly doesn’t start and as the cup final shows he’s struggling to even get on the bench. I get the need for depth and to keep experience around the squad, but if it comes at the expense of a player’s happiness, is it really worth it?
As far back as November, Rosicky was unhappy that he wasn’t playing and he admitted to thinking about leaving in January. He appeared with some regularity in the early part of 2015 before falling back into more or less the same situation as the season drew to a close. So, it’s not easy to understand the logic of the extension – especially as Arsene Wenger has always been open to letting players go if they’re not happy and it seems fairly clear Rosicky is not.
His age is a factor, of course. He’ll be 35 in October of this year, and to my mind he’s still fit and sharp enough to play pretty regularly for a couple of years. Maybe not at the top level of the Premier League, but he’s had plenty of offers – particularly from MLS – where the lower standard would suit him down to the ground.
At 34/35 do you really want to be sitting on the bench as your career winds down? Regardless of how much you love the club, and I know Rosicky has a real connection to Arsenal (he’s been here since 2006 after all), I think he’d be much more content playing week in, week out, somewhere else. His age also means he’s not going to be anything other than forthright when it comes to how he feels, and the frustration is patently obvious.
It’s also hard to imagine that we took up the option to extend so we might get more money for him when we sell him. Maybe this is the new Arsenal, maximising the money we get for every single player that goes out the door, but it flies in the face of the way Wenger has operated throughout his career at this club. He won’t always make it easy for a player to leave, but he rarely makes it difficult and even more so for someone who has given us good service like Rosicky has.
Hopefully this is something that can be sorted out without further public recrimination. It’s very tough to see him being anything more than bit-part player next season, the manager clearly wants to develop Oxlade-Chamberlain into the kind of role that Rosicky often filled, and if he’s not happy with that then the best thing for all concerned is to let him go somewhere else. We’ll see how it pans out, but if he’s not happy, a dignified parting of the ways seems the best option to me.
Meanwhile, Tomas also had a little bit to say about Arsenal’s much-mooted move for Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech:
I know about some things from both sides but I will not interfere. It could even turn against me. Both sides know what they are doing. Arsenal is a top world team. Players want to be transferred there, that is nothing new, it is a fantastic club.
It seems every day there’s more and more to suggest that this is very much on our agenda this summer. Sometimes we can be accused of reading too much into what players say, but in this case it seems pretty clear something is going on between the two parties.
For his part Cech has asked that Chelsea allow him to go where he wants because of the service he’s given them; Chelsea say he can go but on their terms – and quite what that means is open to all kinds of interpretation. Their terms might be late August, with both his legs smashed up by iron bars and his fingers in a bag full of ice.
He seems a popular choice though, as of the time of writing a poll on the article above says that 81% want us to bring Cech in while just 19% would be happy sticking with Ospina/Szczesny. It means nothing at all in terms of what we’ll do, obviously, but it’s interesting all the same.
Right, we’ll have whatever news happens throughout the day on Arseblog News. If you haven’t yet listened to yesterday’s Arsecast Extra you can find it right here as we discuss ALL the Arsenal news and a whole lot more of the news that isn’t Arsenal related, just because there’s plenty of that.
Till tomorrow.
