By Nick Lander
Nicklas Bendtner has released a statement on his failure to secure a transfer away from the club over the summer. The Dane was understood to be very close to a move to Crystal Palace yesterday, but the club's failure to bring in an alternative meant that the move did not get sanctioned. You can read all the details of yesterday here.
His statement confirms that Arsenal had instructed him to find a new club, but "reserved their right to not sanction any deal" as they had not managed to bring in a replacement. Last week Arsene Wenger told Arsenal.com "If [Bendtner] does not leave and prepares well, and is fit, really fit, then I will use him.
"He is not training [with the first team] at the moment because he is coming back from injury and is not ready to integrate into the training sessions."
Having been somewhat frozen out of the club over the past couple of seasons, with loan spells at Sunderland and Juventus, Bendtner's recent history has also been marred by some off the field problems. His refusal to lower his wage demands also scuppered moves much earlier in the summer to the likes of Eintracht Frankfurt, Malaga and Hull.
Whilst being "disappointed" not to leave, the striker describes Arsenal as "a fantastic environment for any professional to apply their trade." Before going on to say: "I still feel very strongly about Arsenal Football Club and following positive talks with the Manager, I am looking forward to working hard to regain full fitness and doing my very best to help to the team and the Manager fulfil our objectives and ambitions this season."
Bendtner concluded his statement by saying: "I will give everything I have to contribute to what I believe will be a successful season for the club." You can read his full statement here.
Whilst Bendtner is far from the ideal player to have as back up to Olivier Giroud, he is a reasonably talented striker, who will score goals. The problem lies with his mentality, believing he is far better than he is. For me his Arsenal career is summed up nicely by a 4 day spell back in 2009/10 when Bendtner missed a hat-full of chances on the Saturday against Burnley, before then bagging a hat-trick on the Tuesday against Porto in the Champions League.
If he finds some consistency he may yet end up having an important impact on Arsenal's season. Assuming he is selected ahead of Park Chu-Young that is...
They have something in common - park chu and this Bendtner guy ; believing they are far better than they are, refusing to lower their wages and no clubs wanted them till the transfer day closed. WTF. What pain in the ass.
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