Israeli international Yossi Benayoun is looking unlikely to return to Arsenal next season.
The Chelsea midfielder spent the entire of the last campaign on loan at their London rivals and impressed the fans and Arsene Wenger towards the end of his reign at the Emirates Stadium.
Reports suggest that the Blues would be willing to let Benayoun go for as little as £1m yet Wenger is supposedly looking for better alternatives in the transfer window as he looks to freshen up his squad.
Personally, I like the player.
I thought he was excellent at West Ham United but was unsure about how he would cope when he moved on to a bigger club.
Yet when he arrived at Liverpool (back when they could reach the Champions League) he proved to be one of their most important players.
The season before he left Anfield was, without question, the best of his career and he was absolutely sensational for the Reds.
He then moved on to Chelsea for a fee of around about £7m which, for a player of his age, was a fair bit of money but in my opinion a good bit of business.
However, tragedy would strike for the Israel captain as a serious injury kept him out for the whole of his first year at Stamford Bridge.
He got back to fitness last summer and was shipped out on loan to Arsenal on transfer deadline day.
At the time, I was excited by his arrival and was hoping he could recreate his form at Anfield and bring it to the Emirates.
It started slow for Benayoun and he didn’t get too much of a looking for the first half of the campaign but was a key player when it came to the business end of the season.
Just like Tomas Rosicky, Benayoun was the captain of his country and offered the team some leadership and experience and was one of the stars in Arsenal’s 5-2 win over Tottenham Hotspur.
He scored some vital goals as well.
He got a late winner at Villa Park and the key first goal on the final day of the season at West Bromwich Albion.
However it looks as if that will be the last time we see Benayoun in an Arsenal shirt, although for £1m, I’d snapped Chelsea’s hand off for him.
Matt Cotton
@FindingCotton
Please grab this Man on time
i would say wait and see. that's very much the spirit of the transfer window. Wenger needs to quickly snap up his top targets as soon as possible, sell as much of his deadwood as he can, see if RVP or Walcott has to leave and then after that evaluate any gaps left and see how best to fill them. Am sure Wenger knows better than us all the value the player gave us late last season. Lets trust AW to do whats best for us at the end of the day.
I expect that at the end of the day he might be given a one year deal. If he accepts it or not i guess we shall see.