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Wenger Set To Hold Talks With Defender

By on July 31, 2014

Arsenal defender Thomas Vermaelen is due to hold crunch talks with Arsene Wenger over his future as reports continue to link him with a move to Manchester United.

Vermaelen is clearly unhappy at the club after losing his place in the starting eleven over 18 months ago and with just one year remaining on his current deal, he’s been widely tipped to leave this summer.

Manchester United are supposedly leading the chase for his signature, but with Barcelona also linked, it’s understood Arsenal would prefer to sell abroad if possible.

The defender returned to training earlier this week but failed to make the trip to Austria for our pre-season training camp with the rest of the first team squad.

The newspapers suggest Arsene told him to stay back in London to work on his fitness after picking up a niggling knee injury at the World Cup, but that seems a little coincidental to me. He’s pretty much got one foot out the door already.

With Wenger and the rest of the squad back from Austria this afternoon, Vermaelen is now set to hold crunch talks with the boss about his future. Those talks could happen on Friday, but they may wait until after the Emirates Cup.

I think it’s safe to say Vermaelen will be leaving this summer but the key points to discuss may be when and where. With Mertesacker set to miss the Community Shield and our Premier League opener against Crystal Palace, it’s going to be very difficult for us to sell Vermaelen any time soon, so any move may be delayed until later in the window.

It remains to be seen whether United or Barca will be willing to wait but if he is to leave, I would much prefer to went to the Nou Camp. Like most Gooners, I’m fed up seeing our players join domestic rivals so I hope Arsene tells him he goes abroad or he has to see out the final year of his deal with us.

That’s unlikely though, as was shown in the case of van Persie, so I fully expect we’ll see Vermaelen to join his pal at Old Trafford but probably not until mid-August at the earliest. Then it’s up to us to bring in a suitable replacement….