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Time for Arsenal to Give Up on Yaya Sanogo?
By Josh Sippie
There sure is a lot of chit-chat about Arsenal’s current and future situation at striker. Is Olivier Giroud good enough? Will Theo Walcott be a striker? Is Danny Welbeck a striker? When will Chuba Akpom be ready? What do we do with Lukas Podolski? Will we sign Edinson Cavani, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Karim Benzema, Jackson Martinez, Paula Dybala or someone else?
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And through all the questions, one guy is never thought of: Yaya Sanogo.
In fact, Yaya Sanogo had virtually disappeared until he was mentioned in the Independent‘s speculation that Arsenal would have to offload him before signing another striker. And even in that article, nothing was said about the forgotten child, Yaya Sanogo.
So is that it then? Is it time to call it quits on the 22-year old?
The answer to that question isn’t all that easy to deduce. Yaya Sanogo is another French prodigy that Arsene Wenger saw fit to purchase at the ripe age of 20, and for good reason. Sanogo had found tremendous success at Auxerre, particularly in their youth system where he netted 15 times in 31 appearances. He then went on to score 11 times in 24 appearances for their senior squad.
Therefore, he had earned himself a place at Arsenal, where he was to be groomed as Olivier Giroud’s successor. Only it wouldn’t be that easy.
Yaya Sanogo has failed to impress at Arsenal. He failed to score in 14 appearances in his first season with the club and though he finally scored in the UEFA Champions League against Borussia Dortmund, Sanogo still has a lot and more to prove. Not to mention that he also failed to impress thus far into his loan at Crystal Palace.
The problem is a multifaceted one. At 22-years of age, no one expects Yaya Sanogo to be a cold-blooded striker. He’s still young. However, we would like to see some improvement and some hope for an impact in a couple years when he’s hitting his mid-twenties. We’ve seen no such thing. There’s always that hope that he could pull the amazing Francis Coquelin loan-to-stud maneuver, but that’s a rare and oft-failed endeavor to put hope in.
Another part of the problem is Chuba Akpom. Akpom has quickly surpassed Yaya Sanogo as the striking future at Arsenal and he’s younger than his French counterpart.
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Sanogo’s skill set is tough to key in on as well. If you base his skill set off of WhoScored.com, the unfortunate Yaya Sanogo has all of zero strengths and four weaknesses. While that may be a little cruel, the question begs to be asked: What exactly does Yaya Sanogo do well?
He has the height to be an aerial threat, but not the bulk. He doesn’t have good pace to be a runner. He tries to hold up play like Olivier Giroud but he’s not very good at it. It all sounds sour for Mr. Sanogo.
I don’t expect Arsene Wenger to just give up on Yaya Sanogo and sell him, but it could turn into a Ryo Miyaichi situation where Wenger won’t admit defeat by selling him, he’ll just loan him out until we forget about him.