According to The Times [paywalled], Arsenal could allow Per Mertesacker to go out on loan this month with a view to giving the defender a chance to prove he deserves a new contract.
The World Cup winner is closing in on full fitness after undergoing surgery in August on damaged knee ligaments, however, it’s recognised that he’ll be well down the centre-back pecking order when he returns.
Laurent Koscielny and Shkodran Mustafi appear to be Arsene Wenger’s first choice pairing with Gabriel and Rob Holding offering back-up. The boss has already made clear that he won’t be loaning out the latter this season.
Given Mertesacker was made club captain, not to mention the fact injuries and suspensions could strike at any time, it would be a very unusual decision to allow the 32-year-old to leave on a temporary basis. His current deal ends in the summer.
The Times claim that the BFG wouldn’t be allowed to join a Premier League club and that a decision won’t be taken until the closing stages of the January transfer window.
We’re not convinced.
No one wants to see the club captain leaves on loan to another club! Cant possible to think it.
If that happens, then either Wenger is making a mockery of the role of captain. Or revolutionising by having 11 captains on the pitch like he says.
Only time will tell.
Yeah Wenger is making a mockery of the captian role at Arsenal. The clown has lost the plot and is completely clueless. I swear some Wenger critics just read all the daily shit that gets printed in the media deliberately to cause a reaction and base their opinions on that. So disrespectful to a man who is one of the most intelligent and educated managers in the history of the game. As a business student I learned the biggest struggle managers face is adapting to change, and the older you get the harder it is to be more flexible. Some… Read more »
Firstly Arsenal is a football club not a business and football is about scoring goals, not conceding goals, winning games and trophys. Secondly as you point out its hard to adapt to change when your old so thanks for the memories of the 1st 10 seasons but enough is enough!!
Look chippy football literally is a business. . . . Soooooo. . . ? If you enjoyed the football of yesteryear before the supermoney then find a nice non league team. How can any body say that these days? Even 20 years ago football was a business. Everything on this planet revolves around people trying to make money. Its wrong but its true. Sorry pal.
Sorry mate but its success on the pitch that counts. Nobody goes down in the history books for having the biggest cash reserve or turnover! Wake the feck up. Brainwashed internet armchairs
Football = Sport
Football Club = Business
Just to clarify – there is a big difference between being tired and not caring, or lacking ambition as many claim. Anyone who has played football consistently at any level can appreciate that. So playing two matches in 2 days is ludicrous. Look into the whole story and analyze what factors contributed to what you’re seeing on the pitch before jumping to a ridiculous conclusion.
Seems he’s the one asking for it.
Yeah, it could make sense..If a) euro world cup will be played in the summer and b) mertesacker is in national team…
He retired from international football after the last World Cup.
I think it’s vaguely possible you missed the obvious sarcasm in the above post
For reference there’s no euros this year either, what with it being an odd year.
Wouldn’t be surprised if the South Americans find another reason to host another Copa America this summer. I have been looking forward to judging Alexis after having a full pre season under his belt ever since we signed him. If he actually ends up leaving this summer, the one summer he can have a breather, I’m going to rage! Lol
I believe Chile are taking part in the Confederations Cup, so there goes that…
Honestly though, sometimes I wonder if the genuine anxiety of not playing for two months would drive Alexis mad.
“Pre-season… not enough! NEED MORE SEASON!”
Just the other day Wenger was talking about the importance of mature players like the BFG to squad moral and competitive focus, so I can’t imagine this happening.
I doubt BFG wants to leave Arsenal this season, and I doubt Wenger would even let him go for the reasons you stated above. The media are losing creativity and are publishing smelly poo now. I was really intrigued to see who we’d get linked to this window knowing Wenger won’t sign anyone for the first team. I guess the old ‘claim Arsenal had a big bid rejected for your striker’ is still around, I just wish Wenger would offer more clarity in his press conferences so he can shut these stupid journalists up. It’s simple, if you didn’t bid… Read more »
This sounds quite bogus. I don’t see the logic of loaning out a mature senior CB who is a leader on the pitch, especially at a crucial time like now. People are talking about Kos and Mustafi and forget about the clean sheet pairing of Kos and BFG not even that long ago. So it makes no sense the club would want him to leave. I think he’s a very smart person and he himself would not want to leave at this crucial point in time, regardless of his contract situation. He’s captain for goodness sake
I’d be more surprised to see him at the club next season than to see him stay, but I just can’t see him leaving this season.
We have koscienly and Mustafi who are clearly our best cb pairing them have Gabriel, Holding and Chambers who can play there. Any two out of the last three would be good enough cover, and we can loan out Chambers or Holding next season WITH A RECALL CLAUSE.
I really feel like kos and mert are our best cb pair. Mustafi is good and new and cost more money etc but mert and kos and an awesome pairing. Solid as you want. I get the impression of Mustafi that he is only really as good as the guy next to him. Well it is a team sport I suppose.
Wow. Clutching at straws wouldn’t be an accurate enough summary of this story. Maybe ‘squidging a humongous pile of shit and smearing it over everything in the barn’ would be better?
I’m going the full 10 poops on this one.
After this story pooping will be now be known as number 10 instead of 2. How disrespectful would it be for the club captain (a World Cup winner) to be sent out for a loan to prove he deserves a new deal.
This sounds so weird and illogical that I think it might be true
Whoever that holds the armband will be benched the following season or set to leave. That has been the case ever since cesc. Followed by rvp. Followed by verminator. Followed by arteta. And the bfg.no one retain the armband more than 3 seasons.
Arteta was captain for two seasons.
It is unlikely he’ll leave on loan imo but you never know. He did leave a Merry Xmas and Happy New Year message for Werder Bremen fans outside London Colney… he is still popular there and if a loan move happens it could boost Bremen a bit.
I think its about time we started thinking more about the club then the player. Although i cant see this happening.
Like letting debuchy go last january while we were in the middle of a title push i thought was absurd.
We could certainly use wilshire right about now aswell. Although iwobi’s done well in the 10 while mesuts been ill, wilshire is far more creative and experienced.
Didn’t they loan out Vermaelen whilst he was captain…
It could be good way for Per to check his credentials. We still have Chambers -who’s doing fine – to come back
I thought i read the other day that AW was saying we’d take up the 1 years extension options for Santi and BFG.
The only type of loan i could see is similar to the one Ramsey did once – just a 1 month loan to a championship side to get a bit of playing fitness back.
Although to be honest i’m not even sure the loan rules allow that nowadays.
This won’t be true . But I am interested to see what BFG future holds . I agree hes a good professional ,but does he have a future at afc ? Sad to say ,but I don’t think he should be offered a new deal . His lack of pace is big issue
Do you play him ahead of Gabriel or Holding? I’m not so sure any more so he might not get much game time from us.
I hope he stays just to mentor the young’uns!
If mustafi or kos were injured going into the bayern match for example who would you choose? Gabriel, holding, mertesacker. I would like to think the answer is fairly obvious. I mean I really dont rate gabriel that highly at all. Mr mistake a match. There is a reason gabriel didnt get a look in when per was fit…. We were shagged without him. Mustafi came in and made us better because we had no per. But id probably put per before mustafi. Great positioning, great tackler, a leader, great height, reliable and consistent.
Hope BFG win’t be loaned out and that will captain side to FA Cup golry!
He’s behind the pecking orders but he’s club captain. I don’t see him leaving on loan…….that being said, we have so many good defenders on paper…but as a unit, we are really bad at defending.
Are we bad at defending? Would you kindly name four Premier League teams who have allowed fewer goals than we have so far this season?
(Hint – it’s a trick question. Only three Premier League teams have allowed fewer goals than we have so far this season.)
Yes, our defense needs to improve! Your stats says it all – our aim should be first and not 4th.
Hopefully with the option of making it permanent
I couldn’t put in 11 poos for how shite this ‘rumor’ from the times is.