Arsenal: Someone is lying about Shkodran Mustafi

Arsenal were about a split second away from selling Shkodran Mustafi this summer, yet no one wanted to make the move. Sounds odd, no?

Arsenal’s flirtatious manner of dealing with the potential sale of Shkodran Mustafi this summer made me go off the deep end. I’m pretty sure I promised to quit my job and set my hair on fire if they actually sold him. That’s how convinced I was that this was all a contrived story to try to get headlines.

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But it almost happened. It really did. When Arsene Wenger sat Mustafi against Liverpool for absolutely no reason, I thought “this is it, unemployment and third-degree burns, here I come.”

It never happened, thankfully. And not just for my own sake. I am a huge Mustafi supporter who sees nothing but quality in the guy. The initial reports that Wenger didn’t rate him were just baffling. After one year. One very convincing year, Wenger didn’t rate him?

That didn’t jive. Wenger has infinite faith in players, just as Theo Walcott. He would never sell a guy because he didn’t rate him after just a year. Not even for an upgrade.

Then that turned around and it was said that Mustafi was always part of Wenger’s plans. Okay. So then the only explanation would be that Mustafi wanted the exit after only a year, but as I tediously pointed out, the German showed nothing but affection for the Gunners.

And yet that was the report, that it was Mustafi who asked to leave the club. Which, again, was fairly inexplicable.

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Now, there is a brand new take on it, straight from Arsene Wenger’s mouth. This being the same Wenger who tap-danced around giving a straight answer about whether he planned to sell Mustafi a week before the window shut.

This new spin goes like this (as quoted by the Evening Standard):

“He wanted to stay.”

Pretty simple. No tap-dancing. No spinning this to fit any particular narrative. Mustafi wanted to stay.

So who wanted him gone? If he was part of Wenger’s plans and if Mustafi wanted to stay, then why were Inter Milan so close to landing his services? Did Mustafi ding-dong-ditch Ivan Gazidis? Did he egg Stan Kroenke’s ranch? Someone is lying about the Mustafi saga.

Normally I would just pin this on the tabloids, but Inter Milan confirmed that they were after Mustafi and that they had made bids and numerous reports indicated that the deal was close. It’s hard to argue about that.

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I guess the important thing is that he’s here, he’s just as talented as I remember and hopefully he will be here next year too. And the next year.