Adam Scoggins
You can see the method in Arsene Wenger's thinking in August of 2006 when he signed the then 17-year-old Denilson. Gilberto was getting older and we were playing a midfield two of an attacking and defensive midfielder. The Brazil under-20 captain had impressed the boss at the previous year’s U17 World Championship with attacking skill and his defensive likeness to countryman Gilberto Silva.
Five years and 90 first team league appearances on, what does he have to show for time in England? For a player who not only played at every junior level for Brazil but also captained the under 20's and 17's he is still to get a debut for his country. This is the biggest indicator that he has not fulfilled the underlying potential at junior level.
He's now at the very stage that Jérémie Aliadière was at towards the end of his Arsenal career. We'd heard and seen quite a lot of him. Arsene as par for the course had stated on numerous occasions about his quality, spirit and belief in his potential to succeed. But his performances on the pitch very much failed to impress. At the age of 23 Jérémie left the club in the summer of 2007 for £1.5 million having appeared in 52 first team league games and scored 8 goals.
Denilson has two areas of his game that do not come up to scratch. Firstly his quality. For me he slows the game down far too often, the main culprit of this is mindless square and backwards balls to and from the defence. Some will argue that he was the most accurate passer in the Premiership a couple of seasons ago, but this is because he rarely passes it forward looking for a team-mate.
This brings me onto too his second flaw, commitment. His passing tendencies I believe are linked to him not taking responsibility on the pitch. In numerous games now it has either been his failure to mark his man, track his man back or general lethargy on the field of play. I remember when we played Man Utd either last season or the season before that a half paced Denilson let a two Man Utd players run right past him which led to a subsequent goal. I cannot name a single time I have seen him run at full pace whether attacking or defending.
For me the time has come to say goodbye to Denni as I'm constantly questioning his level of performance for the shirt he is playing for, and he is just coming along for the ride.
