Danny Welbeck has undergone surgery on his left knee, with the England international now set to miss “a period of months”, as reported by Arsenal.com. The club knew this last week, but opted to keep it from the fans.
“Danny Welbeck has undergone surgery on his left knee after being unable to sufficiently step up his rehabilitation work,” the report read.
The call for a new striker was already deafening before the news of Welbeck’s lengthy layoff was announced, but still we saw no movement on deadline day. The former Manchester United man was unlikely to prove the saviour of our season, but his absence means we are left even lighter up front heading into a massive campaign.
The fact that the club knew full well that the 24-year-old was going to miss a large chunk of the season makes the inactivity even worse, and leaving the fans in the dark was a sly move.
“The decision was taken last week for him to undergo surgery by a leading specialist in the field,” Arsenal.com continued.
“Danny is now expected to be out for a period of months and everyone at Arsenal wishes him well.”
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The club were presumably aware that news of the seriousness of Welbeck’s injury would only see the demand for a striker rise – although the level it’s already at, that hardly seems possible.
It seems they therefore made a conscious decision to keep the news from the fans until after deadline day, at which point it would be too late to do anything about it.
Fans were understandably furious that we weren’t able to sign a striker on or before deadline day, and now that fury has been compounded by the surgery revelation.
The only defence Arsene Wenger and the Arsenal board have is that if other clubs were aware of Welbeck’s status, then the prices may have been jacked up on any potential targets we may have had.
Though our need was so great already, that you would have thought the clubs were charging a premium anyway.
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While it is a blow, Welbeck’s spell on the sidelines is in itself not the worst news we could have gotten. Piled on top of the disappointment many fans are feeling following a disturbingly quiet transfer window however, things seem to be close to boiling point where supporters are concerned.
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