There’s been a lot of talk
about Abou Diaby as he resurfaced to play a reserve game. This is a player who
was going to be part of Arsene Wenger’s post Invincibles brave new world but
has become something of a symbol of failure, however, it is probably more about
him being symbolic of the Manager’s flawed vision and inflexibility. There have
been those occasions when he has looked like the world beater of a captain that
we lost in 2005, yet in other instances he has been pedestrian and wasteful.
Such has been the desire for him to be a Vieira –a-like that all manner of
expectation has been placed upon him. It is absolutely not his fault that his
career has been blighted as a result of out and out thuggery, nor is it his
fault that Wenger has not found Patrick Vieira’s replacement. Eduardo and
Ramsey also suffered from assaults and a great deal of empathy has rightly gone
their way but not so for Diaby, even though he knocked out John Terry.
For many the names Denilsen
and Diaby go hand in hand but this is a little unfair. Denilsen had many chances
and proved to be adequate at best, each time Diaby had a run in the team any
progress was curtailed by injury.Arsene believed that the
future was Bendtner, Diaby, Denilsen, Fabregas, Nasri and Van Persie shaped but
half were sold and half flattered to deceive, yet Abou is basically last man
standing of Wenger’s gamble. It's not a comeback it's more of a reminder.
At 27 he has a good few years in him if he remains
injury free but can a player recapture their best days after so much
interruption? As modern football is a squad game some might say he deserves a
shot, and certainly it appears that he has just got on with rehabilitation
without Selfies, braggadocio or any other distractions so I say give him that
shot, but with a caveat: there is no room for sentiment-perform or move on.
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so I said...