Forset Capture Lansbury

 

By Nick Lander

 

Nottingham Forest have unveiled their 9th signing of the summer, Arsenal youngster Henri Lansbury, who joins in a permanent deal. The talented midfielder, who has also played in goal when called upon, is bringing to a close a 13 year association with the Gunners.

 

Lansbury worked his way through the ranks in North London, joining the club as an eight-year-old, as part of the same group as Jack Wilshere and Emmanuel Frimpong. The youngster made 3 Premier League and 5 League Cup appearances for the club, scoring in the 4-1 League Cup 3rd round victory at White Hart Lane in September 2010. The 21-year-old also has 14 caps for England U-21s - for whom one of his goalkeeping appearances came, after the substitute goalkeeper got sent off.

 

The youngster has plenty of football league experience, having had loan spells at Scunthorpe, Norwich and West Ham, enjoying promotion with all three. Lansbury made 22 appearances for the Hammers as they got promoted back to the Premier League last season, and will be hoping to have a greater involvement as Forest look to return to the top tier of English football, having joined on a 4 year deal, for a fee reported to be over £1m. Arsenal seem to be including hefty sell-on clauses in most transfers away from the club at the moment, and this is likely to be the case for Lansbury's too.

 

Lansbury's failure to really make it at Arsenal could be largely attributed to circumstance, he decided to go out on loan in August 2011, but failed to make any real impact in East London, and may have been better off remaining with Arsenal and trying to force his way into Arsene Wenger's first team plans. He also seemingly missed out on one last chance to prove himself, after injury prevented him from travelling on the club's Asia tour this summer - his replacement Thomas Eisfeld went on to score twice in the three games.

 

Lansbury had this to say about his move, "I am leaving a huge club in Arsenal... but the time is right for me to move on and I'm delighted to be joining a club of Forest's stature in the game.

 

"I'm in no doubt that Forest have what it takes to go up."

 

A player who I have always liked and thought talented, I am sure that Lansbury will be back in the Premier League soon, be that after a fourth successive promotion with Forest or somewhere else. I believe he will be more Seb Larsson than David Bently with his post-Arsenal career.

 

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