Arsenal midfielder Abou Diaby has finally been released by the club after a disastrous career in north London which was riddled by various injuries, the Daily Mail reports.
BREAKING: Abou Diaby released by Arsenal pic.twitter.com/aLfgryRmP8
— MailOnline Sport (@MailSport) June 10, 2015
Diaby is one of our longest serving players having arrived in January of 2006 along with Theo Walcott, but a career thought so highly of never beared fruit.
The Frenchman was on the receiving end of a horrific tackle from former Sunderland man Dan Smith, resulting in a broken and dislocated ankle months after he’d signed.
Diaby never recovered from that knock, but there remains a notion that he was never physically built to handle top-level sport at an intense level on a weekly basis.
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“There is an explanation,” Wenger was quoted as saying in 2012 (via ESPN).
“He is quick, strong, has good stamina, good resistance to repeat, but his muscle strength is not good enough to deal with that. Sometimes little fibres go in his muscles, this is basically his problem.”
With his contract expiring this summer and given that Diaby has only appeared in one league game over the past two seasons, a new contract would’ve been slightly bemusing.
Diaby is a sad case, but if we’re to progress as genuine title challengers, there can be no room for sentiment.
Given his lack of presence, it remains to be seen whether this means that Wenger will look to add a dominant midfielder to our ranks this summer.
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