Lauren will leave, but will Freddie?
65 comments January 11th, 2007
The first one, it seems, is a fait accomplit. Despite having fought for an entire year to get back to fitness, it seems unlikely that Lauren will ever play for Arsenal again. If that’s the case, one can only assume that Wenger doesn’t believe his knee is up to the rigours of regular Premiership football. Even so, it’ll be a sad day if he goes. Lauren is an “exceptional human being”, and one of the toughest yet most popular characters in a squad lacking in experience. With neither Emmanuel Eboue or Justin Hoyte entirely convincing at right-back, his loss would be not only a sad one, but potentially damaging.
The old Lauren would be the best full-back at the club. Which means that if he is being sold we can only assume it is because this isn’t the old Lauren, if you catch my drift. His contract is up in the summer, and Arsene obviously feels he might aswell go now when we might command a fee with him and he can continue his rehabilitation with first-team football.
You do have to ask though, why not loan him out? If he performs well at West Ham and shows that he has a future in the Premiership, then extend his contract. If not, let him go. It seems the sensible option, but financial reasons might interfere. Expect news on this one sometime soon.
Meanwhile, Arsene has spoken out about the recent speculation over Freddie Ljungberg, saying:
“Although I can’t predict the future, Freddie’s experience and winner’s attitude means he still has a lot to offer us.”
Ah. So, you think he has a future, you’re just not sure he has a future. Convincing. For those of you who don’t speak bullshit, what Arsene actually means is:
“He’ll be gone by next season.
Thanks, though.”
For anyone who doubts Wenger’s ruthlessness, I’d refer you to these quotes on Lauren just a few weeks ago. You never thought when they came out that within less than a month he’d be on the brink of leaving.
Freddie’s time is certainly very nearly up. Both Hleb and Rosicky are better options, and soon Theo Walcott will be too. With plans afoot to bring in a wide-man this summer, the game is almost up for our favourite balding scrapper. However, were the three I’ve mentioned to be indisposed, we’d be looking at playing the likes of Cesc, Baptista, and Flamini on the wings: hardly ideal. For that reason alone, I expect Freddie to be kept around as back-up, and a decent option from the bench.
Still, should Freddie and Lauren be gone by the start of next season, and should Jens Lehmann opt for a swansong in the motherland, the only players left from the “Invincibles” side would be Toure, Gilberto, and Henry – quite a remarkable turnaround. The revolving doors at Arsenal have spun at quite a rate, and on occasions it’s been the youngsters who’ve been caught. In the door. Or something.
In seriousness, it has been a fascinating if difficult couple of years watching Arsene build this side. He’s kept younger parts of the spine of the Invincibles, and added to it a blend of youngsters picked up from all over the world. With a recent run of form that’s seen us score 21 goals in just 6 games (that’s 3.5 goals per game), we might (might) be seeing that work come to fruition. Saying that, we’ll probably lose to Blackburn on Saturday.
One player who might be staying is Julio Baptista. He’s certainly taken a step in the right direction with his four-goal haul at Anfield. He says:
“Arsenal is the correct place for me to be right now and I’m very happy to be with them because ‘The Beast’ is back! Arsène Wenger has put so much confidence in me that I’ve been telling friends for weeks now that Arsenal is the club which will make me ‘The Beast’ again.”
Although you should probably never trust someone who refers to themselves in the third-person, he does seem a likeable fellow: I hope it works out for him.
Finally, you may notice the birth of a new feature here on Gunnerblog: On this Day… On this day promises to tell you something banale that happened “On this day” some years ago. A bit like a diary with little sayings in. But just more Arsenally.
