Former Arsenal midfielder and full-time Arsene Wenger hater, Stewart Robson, believes that Monaco’s Thomas Lemar made the right decision by turning down a move to north London on Transfer Deadline Day.
Robson’s recent comments over the ‘sub-standard’ level of management and coaching at Arsenal will come as a surprise to no one since he’s been banging on about it since the dawn of time.
The ex-Arsenal midfielder believes that Lemar was right to stay put as Arsene Wenger’s recent record of developing young talent isn’t exactly fantastic.
“Thomas Lemar has made the right decision because if you look at the history over the last few years of young players, top quality players, going to Arsenal, they’ve got worse because there’s no proper coaching going on, there’s no development of players,” Robson ranted to ESPN FC.
“You look at the likes of (Jack) Wilshere, you look at the likes of (Alex) Oxlade-Chamberlain, (Mathieu) Debuchy coming in at right-back – we’ve not heard of him over the last two years. (Andrey) Arshavin was one of the top players in the world, came to Arsenal, then went downhill. He was a shadow of himself by the time he left!
“So that’s why players will not want to go to Arsenal at the moment because of the management and the coaching at the football club, which is substandard.”
Of course, Robson neglected to mention the likes of Hector Bellerin, Alex Iwobi and Rob Holding. All young and although they’re currently not at their best, neither are the senior players.
Until Lemar speaks out, we won’t truly know why he turned down a chance to move to Arsenal, especially after Monaco allegedly accepted the Gunners’ £92m offer. However, in France, he’s got a regular starting spot ahead of the 2018 World Cup.
The 21-year-old has also already made five appearances for Monaco this season, so perhaps he does believe that his career is best served in Ligue 1 right now.
Or perhaps he really did take a look at the state of Arsenal at the moment and decide that he would rather keep his distance. Could you really blame him?