'Bendtner would benefit from leaving Arsenal', says Gunners legend

smudger usually says what we dont wanna hear just so he sounds credible as a journo, he was banned from the training ground previously for exactly this

Hi gooners it was the shaktar game i remeber alan smith commentating he didnt have a great game and hes been getting stick from smith ever since.

recently though having watched him play hes getting better, his touch is alot better now, hes creating goals ala squillaci, ie cross for van persie.

Scoring goals and great goals like the ones against newcastle, ipswich.

I just think its taken him a long time to recover from his injuries and hes only started to come good.

I think theres alot more to come from him hes a good squad player to have. Alan Smith is a bit harsh on bendtner considering hes only 23.

Van persie at 23 wasn’t exactly great was he. he showed flashes but nothing consistent

pottor is spot on, since he moved to sky he’s always been very careful of his words, he’s still a top lad but he tries to hard to be impartial at times. Lee Dixon is way worse tho.

Winterburn just says what he feels and doesn’t care if he’s bigging up the club he loves, every other ex player of other clubs do it. Only ours dont. Just ask Ian Wright.

^^BEZZA, you don’t get to watch many arsenal games do you?

Aren’t there more important things to write about than this right now Smudger? Only a Cup Final, Champions League and FA Cup games and the best title run in for years. But why not just speculate on what may or may not happen in the summer?

This is precisely NOT the time for Bendtner to make a move away from Arsenal! Sure he could go and become a big-time star at any number of “lesser” clubs–and maybe, in his eagerness to play, he would find that satisfying in the short-term. But, Nikki needs to realize that he and this Arsenal squad are on the verge of making a major breakthrough: a breakthrough that could lead to more titles and accolades and greater recognition than he could ever achieve at a “lesser” club. What every pundit who wonders about whether Bendtner can get enough playing time behind Van Persie and Chamakh to be satisfied fails to recognize is that Nikki doesn’t just play in the central striker role up top in the Arsenal setup: when healthy, he also has logged valuable minutes on the right wing. In that position against Barcelona, Bendtner played a decisive role after coming on for Walcott: it was his presence, as he cut into the middle, that caused Valdez to “cheat” away from the post, leaving Van Persie the space that he needed to score his goal (had Valdez not been “cheating” the way he was, Van Persie could have cut the ball back to Nikki for a tap-in) and Bendtner’s size and activity on the defensive end helped to disrupt Barcelona’s efforts to attack the right side of the Arsenal defense (and the vulnerable Eboue) in the closing stages of the game (something that Walcott could never have done as well). Between filling in for the brittle Van Persie and getting playing time on the right wing against certain clubs (which neither Van Persie nor Chamakh can do as well), Bendtner will get plenty of playing time at Arsenal, given the number of matches that the club plays, if he can stay healthy and continue to improve his overall game.

Bendtner has shown signs that he just may be on the verge of making a breakthrough in that needed improvement. As has been pointed out, his first touch–a real weak spot if he wants to play as a central striker–has started to get better in recent games. So, too, has his passing. No matter where he plays, Nikki must continue to show improvement and consistency in both of these areas if he wants the kind of playing time that he craves. But, if he can achieve that improvement and consistency with Arsenal, he has a much better chance of achieving the stardom and recognition that he desires as well because, whether they win silverware this season or not, this Arsenal squad is on the verge of becoming serious and dangerous title contenders on all fronts in the coming seasons.

The progress of the team this season, highlighted by it’s going blow-for-blow with Barcelona in its latest CL contest, is evidence that this core group of players is ready to start winning titles. No matter how well a player performs for a “lesser” club, greater glory and recognition goes to those who play for a club that wins titles–even those who play somewhat lesser roles for that club. If Bendtner continues to improve and sticks around to help Arsenal win the titles that they are now well-poised to challenge for over the next 3-4 years (at least), he will get the recognition, fame and possibly fortune that he seeks. If he leaves Arsenal for a “lesser” club or goes to a title contender where he will sit nearly as much as he has at times at Arsenal, Nikki will not achieve as much of those things as he would by staying with Arsenal. Because his loss would hurt Arsenal to a certain degree, in the short-term Bendtner might benefit a bit from leaving Arsenal, but, in the longer term, it would be a huge mistake. All it would take would be for him to slot home the winner in a CL final or an EPL title clinching victory for Bendtner to become a legend at Arsenal and gain world-wide recognition. Could he get that scoring 20-25 goals for an Aston Villa, Birmingham, Stuttgart, etc. or riding the bench most of the time for AC Milan, Real Madrid or Bayern Munich (where you know he would be competing with 3-4 other world-class strikers for playing time)?

Nikki needs to think seriously about that. I’m sure that Arsene Wenger will point it out to him. And the pundits who think he should move on to a “lesser” club need to think about that, too, before they either end up encouraging the young man to make a move that won’t be that great for his career or end up with egg on their faces.

atho’ now is not the right time to talk about walking out on team, it never really is… these things will always happen at the ‘wrong’ times and it’s a (big) part of man management at the club. human nature..