I have to say, upon first reading Bendtner’s comments regarding Arsenal yesterday I laughed myself silly.
Arsenal fans have been labelled overly harsh at times and very critical of their own players, but by no stretch of the phrase does that description apply to Nicklaus Bendtner.
He has been truly horrible.
As an Arsenal fan I have watched the raw young Dane turn into one of Europe’s most prominent walking jokes. Me and my friends refer to an easy miss in football as ‘a Bendtner’.
The guy produces a lot more off the pitch than he does on it. He constantly complains but when he gets the chance to prove himself he makes a mockery of all the people that have had faith in him.
He doubled his number 26 to 52 a couple of seasons ago in an attempt to double his goal scoring tally. He increased his tally by perhaps a goal or two, but failed his overall objective.
By my calculations he will need to be wearing no. 416 to get to a level where it is worth having him in the squad.
"“I will never go back to Arsenal. If I can have it my way, I will never play for them again. After my car accident I never really got the chance to earn a spot in the first team. That is over 1½ years with no real chance to prove myself.“I am really looking forward to playing for Sunderland and then we will see next summer. I will find a new club — but I will not go back to Arsenal, that’s for sure.”"
I can hear the celebrations that have been pulsating non stop for the last 24 hours from North London all the way down here in Sydney.
I can remember one good Bendtner moment through all the years and games he played for the club. That was his 79th minute winner against Tottenham which I believe was in 2009 where he came on as a late substitute ran up to the Tottenham box and continued his run to head the ball into the goals in what was the fastest ever goal by a substitute in the history of the English Premier League.
I can write a novel on all the bad Bendtner moments that still rot away in my brain. The most recent was his unmissable miss against Barcelona in the Champions League last year that would have kept Arsenal in the game in the Nou Camp.
Courtesy of FootballTalk I have some pretty interesting stats on Bendtner from last season.
Bendtner played 1742 minutes in total, with 17 starts, 9 goals, 5 assists and an average of 194 minutes per goal.
Robin van Persie, who battled injury for the first half of the season and was forced to find his legs very quickly upon his return managed 2680 minutes, with 30 starts, 24 goals, 9 assists and an average of 112 minutes per goal.
It should be mentioned that most, if not all, of Bendtner’s goals and assists came against the lesser opponents in competitions like the Carling Cup, FA Cup and the group states of the Champions League. van Persie tied the record for most goals scored in the history of the English Premier League from January 1 till the end of the season. The contrast of circumstances is huge and the statistics still show the ineptness of Bendtner.
I feel sorry for Sunderland fans but it is such a huge weight taken off our shoulders. All the goals in all the games he has blown over the years could have made the difference in Arsenal’s 6 barren years. I’m not kidding, there were that many.
So to Bendtner, I don’t know whether you were trying to hurt the Arsenal fans in saying what you said, but we could not be happier to have you out of our club. I feel sorry for the Sunderland fans and I pray that you do not make his loan deal permanent, because I do not wish that upon a likeable team such as Sunderland.