Sam Oliver
Robin Van Persie was first, Alex Song was second and Tomas Rosicky was third; can you guess what it is? Those are the results of the Arsenal player of the season award for the 2011/2012 season. With Robin Van Persie and Alex Song having left for pastures new (bastards), this leaves Tomas Rosicky (in the fans eyes) as our best player last season among those who remained at the club.
But, at the time of writing, Arsenal have just been embarrassingly knocked out of the FA cup by Blackburn Rovers, we have been knocked out the Capital One Cup by Bradford, are four points behind Middlesex Hotspurs and our only chance of winning a trophy comes in the shape of a miracle against the awesome Bayern Munich in the Champions League, to probably draw another European heavyweight if we get through to the Quarter finals; what bugs me more than anything about this situation, is the lack of game time for one of our best players.
I got ‘Little Mozart’ on the back of my shirt for F***’s sake! Rosicky has so many of the key attributes that make a great midfielder; his passing and through balls are superb, his work rate is tremendous, his crossing and dribbling is among the best at the club and he has a great shot when he gives it a go; what he lacks in pace and strength he easily makes up for in determination in my, and many others opinion.
The only thing that’s held him back from being one of the best in the League in my opinion is injuries; he’s had a silly amount, and he missed the first few months of this season because of injury, which is nobody’s fault. However, when he came back to fitness, the way he’s been ignored and under used is baffling. That is someone’s fault; I love the man, but Wenger has handled Rosicky awfully. Then we have to handle those stupid rumours of drug problems, and the more tragic thing is that people actually believe them. Sigh.
Don’t get me wrong, I really like Santi Cazorla; he’s a better player than Tomas Rosicky. But he’s inconsistent and very patchy in form; why then, when Santi is off form, isn’t Tomas getting a start? It infuriates me when he’s left to rot on the bench, when he’s the kind of dynamic dribbler we need coming off the bench to make an impact; it infuriates me further, when he’s playing superbly and taken off, like against Blackburn on Saturday; his through balls were causing their defence hell, and he’d already struck the bar from 25 yards. Take him off when we need a goal? It’s only logically.
I think he’s had a rift with Arsene; his contract expires in 2014 and my guess would be Tomas isn’t getting another one. It’s just my guess as to why he’s getting nowhere near the amount of playing time he deserves. I’ll be gutted when he leaves, which will probably be at the end of this campaign. Good luck Tomas.
Twitter@smoliver96
