An article on the Daily Mail website claims Hector Bellerin is ‘desperate’ to get out of Arsenal and ‘termination of his deal may be mutual between club and player.’ Really?
Hector Bellerin may or may not want to leave Arsenal.
Until the Spaniard comes out and says something, we can’t know for sure. If he does want to leave, I very much doubt he’s as ‘desperate’ as the Mail want us to believe, given how much he clearly loves the club and life in London, but let’s imagine for a minute he is…
Personally feel we didn’t deserve that result last night. Tough to take after the fight and courage from the whole team, therefore I will still plant those trees! pic.twitter.com/FJqqADEXuL
— Héctor Bellerín (@HectorBellerin) July 8, 2020
Bellerin has decided that the club he signed for nine years ago is no longer the place for him, and the man who is planting 14,000 trees for every Arsenal win (and some draws too), wants out as soon as he’s recovered from a year-long injury the club supported him through.
Dick move from a very undicky person, but let’s roll with it.
In what universe are Arsenal going to just terminate the contract of a player with three years left, who is one of the few players in the squad that could actually fetch a decent price?
In a universe where Bayern Munich spin stories to the press, that’s what one.
None of this story makes any sense until you remember how Bayern went about getting Serge Gnabry out of Arsenal for next to nothing, funding the move and then planting him at Werder Bremen for a season because they believed Arsenal would have asked more from them.
Wenger himself said he was convinced Bayern were behind it all. They denied it, of course.
Arsenal sold Gnabry to Werder Bremen for £4.5m. He joined Bayern the following season for £7.2m when his release clause was triggered. They changed his release price to a ridiculous sum like £60m or £80m, if I remember correctly. He has since signed a new deal.
Now, let’s look at the Bellerin story again…
Where has this story about Bellerin come from?
The Daily Mail via Sky Germany. I even remember on Sunday, when the news from Sky Germany broke, most Arsenal fans on Twitter responded with some version of ‘what the hell would Sky in GERMANY know about Hector Bellerin?’
Who are denying they are interested in Bellerin when nobody said they were?
Bayern Munich.
Since the start of January, we’ve covered stories linking Bellerin with Inter Milan, Atletico Madrid, Real Betis, Sevilla, and PSG. Do you see the Germans listed there?
What else are they saying?
“It is also claimed that the German champions do not want to pay Bellerin’s price tag due to their reservations about the [sic] his defensive work,” say the Daily Mail.
The Mail then go to decent lengths to highlight how poor Bellerin’s form has been this season and how little he’s played, without once mentioning his ACL injury or subsequent hamstring problems. They don’t even hint at them.
A clear bid to drive down his value in the eyes of others, as is saying he’s ‘available’ for around £20m when it’s much nearer £30m.
You can smell it all now, can’t you? Now it makes more sense.
Arsenal and Henrikh Mkhitaryan came to an agreement where his contract was cancelled so he could join Roma for free. That happens with players you don’t want but can’t sell.
It was also to get his huge £185kpw off the wage books. Plus, he only had a year left on his Arsenal contract.
Bellerin earns £110kpw, is a valuable first team regular that the club want to sign a new deal who still has three years left on his contract.
Why would Arsenal consider a mutual termination?
Why?
What reason could they possibly have to let one of their most valuable assets walk away for free?
I, of course, could be totally wrong. The Daily Mail have better access to information than I do. They’re also, therefore, better placed to be fed stories by clubs.
I’d just like to understand what logic they think Arsenal are using to come to this conclusion and I can’t.
I can, however, smell Bayern Munich’s grubby handiwork all over this and it stinks.