Santi Cazorla says a proper farewell to Arsenal is something he still wants to achieve before he retires, having departed the club after not playing for over 18 months.
We all know the injury problems he had, and having been a fan favourite since his 2012 arrival from Malaga, it was sad for fans and for the player not to be able to have a proper goodbye.
He did the lap of honour on the final home game in 2018 before joining his former club Villarreal, but his final appearance in red and white came in October 2016.
“It was frustrating to not be able to say goodbye to a club who treated me so well,” he told the BBC.
“It is something left in my career to say goodbye properly. I am eternally grateful to the club and the fans for the way they continue to treat me.”
Earlier this week at the Fan’s Forum meeting, Head of Football Raul Sanllehi spoke about the desire for Gooners to see Santi again and suggested it was something the club would explore.
“I’m good friends with his agent, so we’ll look into that,” said Sanllehi.
Santi also backed his former teammate Mikel Arteta who took over as manager in December.
“Arteta deserves to the the boss,” he said. “He was always a leader in the dressing room. It was the right decision to put him in as manager – it made sense and he has everything you need for the job.
“I hope he takes Arsenal up the table.”
We all do, and hopefully we can arrange something which allows the long overdue goodbye between Cazorla and the fans to take place.
Sign him for life, he’s tearing up la Liga
One of the most naturally gifted players to ever grace the Premier League.
How could you not love our Santi?
I’m sure Hull City fans hate him for starting the turn around in the FA Cup Final… https://youtu.be/7K5j4mMfBK0
And Man City, especially Kompany for doing this to them… https://youtu.be/eWJetnFUIsg
This was (until the recent Chavski draw) my favourite post-Highbury game. A guy who cost +-£8mil singlehandedly taking on an oil state funded £1bil team. Incidentally this was the first game that Santi dropped deep to replace our injured captain MA8 and after the players met without Wenger before the game to work out a plan to beat the league champions. Was this MA8 showing his first signs of managerial ability?
Get Villarreal to take part in the Emirates Cup game in pre-season.
He could play one half for us, one half for them.
Was pretty much my thoughts, except any friendly
“Ooohh Santi Cazorla…”
Our greatest player of the Emirates era.
Cazorla was a joy to watch.
“I’m good friends with his agent, so we’ll look into that,” said Sanllehi. – Is there an agent this dude ain’t mates with?
Love you Santi and would be great if we can give you a proper send off, I’ll buy the cake.
I thought that was a wind up ?
Farewell? Nah.
Santi could step right in and start for us today.
11G/5A all comps at Villareal– better than any MF on the roster right now.
There was absolutely no reasons why he couldn’t have been included on the last premier League bench he was with us for, an injury time cameo would have been excellent
I believe Wenger said something at the time but it would have been far too big of risk for Santi to play at all at that point given where he was in his recovery. It’s hard to believe but he was out for basically 2 seasons at that point
Santi and Rosicky, my two favorites players of that era and sorely missed even today. Would love to have Santi with us, even if not playing as often, just having him around the club would be massive.
Imagine the demand for tickets if Arsenal gave him a testimonial!
Sign him up for life! Even after all he’s been through he’s better than any CM on our team sheet today!
Arguably, we have not had proper control in midfield since 2015 when he went out injured. The league has caught up in terms of technical terms. We fundamentally lack sufficient number of players with technical ability to hold the ball properly and attack the vertical. Don’t let success at Newcastle fool you into ‘improvements’ beyond what really there is…bar codes have been one of the worse for ball retention all season. Where we had Viera or Diaby or Santi, we now lack that ability and have to deploy two (Granit and one of Ceballos, Torreira or Guendouzi) to do the… Read more »
Emre can is slow and no different to any of our midfielders. Just shut up you waffler.
Mr Negative strikes again
“I’m good friends with his agent”. Of course you are, Raul. We really should have known…
Can’t we just sign him for a season like we did with Henry late in his career? Wouldn’t even care what it would cost
Good news, we wan to say thank you and goodbye to Santi Cazorla in a proper way?
Plz,give him one Sean to play for arsenal again
Santiago!!!