Were Arsenal right to award this man with a new contract?

According to Swiss daily Le Matin (and I’m sure confirmed by official sources by the time this article goes live) centre-back Johan Djourou has signed a contract extension that will keep him an Arsenal player for two more years. Whilst he may only be a squad player at the moment, fans have been clamouring out for a better class of squad player for quite some time.

So does Djourou belong to that list of players including Carlos Vela, Niklas Bendtner, Denilson and Diaby who are simply not good enough to play for a top four club, regardless of their status as a squad player? Or will Arsenal fans be happy (or at least not disappointed) to hear that Djourou has signed a new deal?

There are two things that are worth considering here: the fact that he’s somewhat injury prone and the fact that his form has been steadily dropping since the end of last season. There was a time last season where Johan Djourou was Arsenal’s talisman (believe it or not). When he started a game, the Gunners just didn’t lose. However the 4-4 collapse against Newcastle seemed to play havoc with his confidence and ever since then his performances have got steadily worse.

He hasn’t been helped by being asked to play out of position in recent times as a result of Arsenal’s full-back crisis. Whilst he favours playing the centre-back position Wenger has asked him to play as a right-back on numerous occasions this season and I think it’s fair to say that it has been a real challenge for him.

Then there’s his propensity to pick up injuries – surely the point of a squad player is to be there when the first choice isn’t? When it comes to Djourou, he’s just not that reliable. It seems that all the mango butter in the world hasn’t been able to keep him fit and ready for regular football.

Despite this, I don’t think it’s a bad move for Arsenal to keep him on. In reality he is at best a fourth choice centre-back and the development of Ignasi Miquel may see him drop to fifth. Even though he’s a fairly versatile player I doubt that Arsenal fans will actually see all that much of him.

Given that he’s not absolutely useless and remains a big step up from Sebastian Squillaci, it’s probably worth keeping him on the books.

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