On the final home game sounds of “Sagna we want you to stay” reverberated around the Emirates trying to lure the French right back to sign a new deal at the age of 31 you would normally say an extra year is fair enough but I can only think the board and Arsene Wenger have missed something big here. Sagna has a very impressive appearance record he is in great shape a 3 year deal would have been more than satisfactory for both parties but once again this idea of only offering 1 year extension to the over 30 could come back to bite us in a big way.
Stories have come out about how Sagna has told his team mates that he will be leaving for rivals Manchester City in the Summer, this is a real kick in the teeth for us as the Premier League champions take another one of our French contingent, if this is true the French international will join former players Samir Nasri and Gael Clichy two players who were much loved but now in some quarters are a pillar of hate. It appears sometimes that as a club we do our best to aid our opponents. Once again we have been too late negotiating, this whole situation should have been done and dusted last season. Deja vu anybody? Matthieu Flamini’s first exit was put down to the club not offering him a good enough deal in time so he moved to AC Milan. I’m sure I don’t need to remind you of the Robin Van Persie saga which the club were too weak. At the time I thought Wenger was too weak and I still do, I had no problem with the sale as that made perfect sense he wanted to leave and the club did not do anywhere near enough to try and convince him to stay. But to sell him to a rival is unforgivable. There were clearly over takers from abroad, can you imagine Daniel Levy doing the same thing put it that situation? not a chance.
So it by all accounts looks like this will be Bacary Sagna’s last game in an Arsenal shirt if you believe this Mornings papers. Would you play him? if you are in to your sentimentality I’m sure you would, it would be a nice send off for him if he was to finally win a trophy with us. I personally wouldn’t it is important to go into next season with a positive and go into it with a squad of players that are looking forward to next season at the Emirates and not concerned with where their own future lays. I would start Carl Jenkinson again he looked good in his last run out or be it against a poor Norwich City side.
I will definitely be sad to see Bacary Sagna leave but we must remember most of the players that have left have grown to regret it and I feel he would be the same. would he really displace Pablo Zabaleta as first choice at Man City? I doubt it. That is not a slight on Sagna I actually rate him higher but I just think Manuel Pellegrini would have Zabaleta as his first name on the team sheet. The exit of Sagna would leave quite a hole that is for sure but already the club has been linked with Dani Alves and Serge Aurier either would be a very good addition. I would expect the signing of Aurier more likely as Alves’ wage demands would surely be too high for Arsenal to match.
thanks for reading.
@goonerscribe
