Some experiments just aren’t destined to work out and Arsenal’s Sebastian Squillaci experiment has been nothing short of a tremendous failure.
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger is known for his ability to pluck rare gems out of the transfer market at a bargain price. He has a reputation for being a keen judge of potential and talent.
But he hasn’t half made a few poor transfers during the last decade: Mikael Silvestre, Francis Jeffers and Philippe Senderos. But Sebastian Squillaci may represent the nadir of his transfer dealings.
He joined from Sevilla in 2010, where he had been a mainstay at a club who always finished towards the top of La Liga. Unfortunately, two and a half years later, I’m struggling to remember any time he has had a positive influence for Arsenal football club. However, there are a few times that stick in the mind when a Squillaci error has cost the Gunners.
At 32-years-old, he has put in just 24 League appearances for Arsenal and picks up a hearty pay-check each week. That he’s behind the likes of Thomas Vermaelen, Laurent Koscielny and perhaps Johan Djourou is telling. He’s turned into deadwood at Arsenal and as things stand, his career is in the pan.
If he wants to re-build his career, he’ll have to move on. There just aren’t any opportunities for him at Arsenal.
Luckily, the player himself seems to have accepted this: “I will be out of contract at the end of the season. Under the proposals, I will leave. Perhaps during the January transfer window or else I will wait for the month of June. Marseille, Nice, Monaco, Bastia or Ajaccio are clubs that speak to me. I am 32 years old, I still have two or three good seasons [left in me].” (Source: Varmatin.com)
I can’t help but herald this as a good thing. Arsenal need to be proactive in the way they are selling the players they aren’t using, in order to free up funds to make moves for players that they will.
Hopefully the likes of Denilson, Nicklas Bendtner and Marouane Chamakh follow him out the door. Once the overpaid, under-utilized, poor squad players are shown their way out, Arsenal will have the ideal foundation on which to rebuild.
Until that moment, however, the specter of players like Squillaci will continue to hover over the Emirates.
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Should Arsene let him go? Is that your idea of a joke or do you simply have nothing to say.