Arsenal – Page 2 – Thomas Vermaelen

Is Thomas Vermaelen not going to return to Barcelona?

Thomas Vermaelen only has a few months left on his contract with the Italian outfit As.Roma as his loan deal with be reaching it’s end on August but it seems like the veteran defender is not interested in making a return to his parent club Barcelona.

The 31 year old Belgian defender Thomas Vermaelen has always struggled with injuries throughout the entirety of his career as he has been injured in just about every club that he has performed in.

When was wearing the Arsenal jersey a few years ago, he sustained various injuries which kept him out of the pitch for a significantly long period of time but there was one in specific that forced him to stay on the sidelines for around 8 months.

After spending 5 years with Arsenal, Vermaelen joined Barcelona and injuries continued affected him as the Belgian player picked up a hamstring injury that left him off of the pitch for 4 months and many other physical problems have emerged which has only further increased his time on the sidelines. Continue reading Is Thomas Vermaelen not going to return to Barcelona?

Roberto Martinez Expects Key Contribution from Thomas Vermaelen

Belgian national team boss Roberto Martinez expects injury prone defender Thomas Vermaelen to play a key role for Roma this season.

Vermaelen’s career has been hit hard by injuries over the last five years. When he moved at Arsenal as a highly talented player from Ajax back in 2009, Vermaelen was regarded as one of the best centre backs in the world. He became so influential in the Arsenal team that he was even made is the captain of the gunners just a few years after his arrival. However, things became especially poor for the player when he suffered his first major injury in the 2010-11 campaign.

An Achilles tendon injury was blamed as the reason for the player managing only five appearances throughout the campaign. However, not many expected that this poor injury record to continue since the player had never encountered such a major problem previously in his career. It turned out to be a recurring issue with Vermaelen only managing 21 appearances in all competitions in his final season at the club. Continue reading Roberto Martinez Expects Key Contribution from Thomas Vermaelen

WENGER BACK IN FOR VERMAELEN?

Catalan Publication, Sport, reported that the Spanish La-Liga Champions weighed up a bid from Emirates Stadium. Arsenal coach, Arsene Wenger surprisingly made a bid to re-sign their former defender, Thomas Vermaelen.

Vermaelen joined the Ajax youth academy in year 2000 as the Netherlands side won the 2003/04 Eredivisie title in his first season with the club. He had a loan spell with RKC Waalwijk before returning to Ajax and winning the KNVB Cup and the Johan Cruyff Shield as well. When Klaas-Jan Huntelaar departed in 2009, Vermaelen played as the club captain for the rest of the season. Continue reading WENGER BACK IN FOR VERMAELEN?

Marc Wilmots laid the blame on the makeshift defence

Belgian manager Marc Wilmots laid the blame on the makeshift defence for the loss against Wales in the Euro 2016 quarter-finals.

Belgium had a great opportunity to reach the semifinals of the competition and that this golden generation can perform when it matters the most. Questions have been raised about the mental strength of the golden generation, which features the likes of Romelu Lukaku, Eden Hazard, and Thomas Vermaelen. The latter has missed majority of the campaign and it was not surprising to see him unable to feature at the Euro 2016 due to injury.

Wilmots was sceptical about the availability of Vermaelen for the tournament, but Belgium were handed major injury blows just prior to the Euro 2016. The likes of Manchester City captain and defender Vincent Kompany’s failed to make it to the tournament was one of the biggest blows. Tottenham defender Jan Vertonghen was yet another injury casualty but midway through the campaign. All these injuries – especially in the defence – forced Wilmots to field a makeshift defence against one of the surprising teams of Euro 2016 – Wales. A 3-1 defeat – despite taking an early lead through Nainggolan – saw Belgium exit the tournament with Wilmots blaming the defence as a major reason.
Continue reading Marc Wilmots laid the blame on the makeshift defence

Thomas Vermaelen has been one of the biggest disappointments for Barcelona

Thomas Vermaelen has been one of the biggest disappointments for Barcelona ever since the Belgian international came to the club in 2014.

He arrived for a reasonably high transfer fee of €15 million, but he has managed only 21 appearances in all competitions for the club in the last two years. More worryingly, the bulk of these appearances came in the current campaign with Vermaelen spending almost the entire 2014-15 season on the sidelines. He does not seem to be completely free from injuries, as he has once again spent the last few weeks on the sidelines.

Barcelona, though, have been boosted by the potential return of the 30-year-old for the final la Liga match of the campaign.The return of Vermaelen is more important for the Belgian national team, who have been desperately unlucky with regard to injuries to their major centre backs. Only recently, the national team has received a setback in form of Vincent Kompany, who will definitely miss the Euro 2016 after yet another recurring injury. Vermaelen may be able to pick up the la Liga winner’s medal by virtue of his limited appearances, but he will be disappointed with the season nonetheless. The 30-year-old has vowed to fight on for his place at Barcelona despite his issues. Continue reading Thomas Vermaelen has been one of the biggest disappointments for Barcelona

Vermaelen talks about what makes Barcelona so dominant

Thomas Vermaelen underwent surgery in December of 2014 as he wanted to resolve his repetitive hamstring injuries and the Belgian appears to be fully fit with no injuries but even after managing to recover from his string of physical problems, he is struggling to land a spot in the starting lineup of Barcelona’s Luis Enrique.

The Belgian is mostly being utilized as a substitute player with limited playing time. Even though Vermaelen is clearly not one of the main stars of Barcelona, the experienced defender has played and trained enough with the Spanish club that he knows what are a few of the things that makes his team so strong and dominant in the world of football and Vermaelen said: ‘’The first thing I noticed here was the intensity of the pressing. The pressure is on straight away when we lose the ball. We do a lot of positioning games, focusing on getting the ball back. The pressure the players put on you is incredible, you have no time on the ball. We always do it at the start of training, it doesn’t only warm you up but it’s a training session in itself, you try to keep the ball in possession and make the guys in the middle do the pressing.’’ Continue reading Vermaelen talks about what makes Barcelona so dominant

Thomas Vermaelen says that he is very much looking forward to be part of major competitions

After going through an injury hell in the last 24 months, Barcelona defender Thomas Vermaelen says that he is very much looking forward to be part of major competitions.

Immediately after joining for £ 16 million from Arsenal, the Belgian international found himself consistently on the sidelines due to recurrences of various injury problems. It has been only in the last few months that he has been featuring regularly for club and country. The defender has easily lost two years of his productive footballing career and he intends to make the best out of the extended absence from the pitch.

Due to the continued absence, manager Luis Enrique has gone for other options on the pitch. It will be up to Vermaelen to convince the manager that he is the right man to partner with Gerard Pique. The injury record of the defender has to improve a lot as well as his form. The impressive form of the Catalan club will make it doubly hard forVermaelen to return to the first-team, but he remains confident of doing so. At the moment, the 30-year-old is just happy to be part of the squad for the Club World Cup. Barcelona are overwhelming favourites to lift yet another title but it will beVermaelen’s first proper success with the Spanish club. Continue reading Thomas Vermaelen says that he is very much looking forward to be part of major competitions

Thierry Henry is of the opinion that the club still needs to bring can as much as for top players

Arsenal legend Thierry Henry is of the opinion that the club still needs to bring can as much as for top players in order to compete with the likes of Chelsea and Manchester City.

Arsenal have brought in Petr Cech for £ 11 million as their only major signing of the summer. Goalkeeper position was seen as an important area of concern during the summer transfer window and many fans have been happy with this new signing.Cech has been the first choice at Chelsea for more than a decade and he is still a world-class goalkeeper.

However, Henry has recalled that Chelsea finished last season a whopping 12 points ahead of Arsenal and this gap is unlikely to be closed anytime soon if Cech remains the only major signing for the gunners in this transfer window. Olivier Giroud had a major role to play in Arsenal finishing third in the table, but the Frenchman missed a good portion of the first half due to injury.

In his absence, the club was not able to find any replacement goal scorer, in spite of being linked with plenty by the Transfer Rumours website. After they have sold Lukas Podolski, the situation has only worsened. Henry has identified a striker – amongst other positions – that need strengthening almost immediately. Continue reading Thierry Henry is of the opinion that the club still needs to bring can as much as for top players

Can Arsenal resurrect their Champions League campaign?

You would have felt confident upon looking at who the Champions League group stage draw had pitted Arsenal again, but although there is no such thing as easy games in football, the Gunners have made a real mess of what should have been a safe progression to the knock-out phases. Back-to-back defeats against Dinamo Zagreb and Olympiakos have left us with a mountain to climb, especially when you consider Arsene Wenger has to prepare his team for a double-header against the formidable force of Bayern Munich.

Pep Guardiola’s side appear more ruthless than ever before, with Robert Lewandowski’s astonishing goal-scoring form for club and country, including five in just nine minutes in Bayern’s 5-1 rout of Wolfsburg, making him Europe’s leading striker. We should try hard not to take a downbeat attitude into the first meeting at the Emirates, but with Arsenal’s European hopes hanging by a thread, it could require a monumental effort to overturn the Bundesliga champions in our own back yard. Continue reading Can Arsenal resurrect their Champions League campaign?