Arsenal: Arsene Wenger harsh but fair to be coy on Santi Cazorla

Arsene Wenger admitted that Santi Cazorla may not be offered a new deal at the end of the season. While harsh, his assessment of the oft-injured Arsenal midfielder is fair.

Injuries are a horrible thing. They rob players of the joys of football, they scupper development, they cost teams titles and trophies, they cost fans the unbridled heart-fluttering excitement of watching truly, inordinately talented individuals express themselves with a ball at their feet.

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But with Arsenal, they are seemingly an annual occurrence. Arsene Wenger has always had to juggle his squad through a mire of injury concerns, rotating through a myriad of players simply to cobble together 11 men that can play a game.

He has also seen his player’s careers ruined by the relentless repetition of injury after injury after injury. And the latest to suffer the most excruciating and debilitating of injuries is Santi Cazorla.

The Spaniard has been absent for nearly 18 months and is expected to miss the rest of the season. He has undergone 11 surgeries on his ankle, has contemplated retirement on several occasions, and could be staring down the barrel of the end of his career.

And amid all of this agony and despair, Cazorla has had to deal with the uncertainty of his contract expiring at the end of the year while being injured. It is far from a nice situation to be in. It didn’t get nicer when Wenger spoke to the media on Friday morning as he was asked whether the diminutive midfielder would be offered a new deal or not:

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"“We have to assess that until the end of the season – if Santi is fit and available to play, then yes. Of course, we have to see that. That is why I tell you it is a complicated situation because first of all we love him, second of all he is a great football player. But the third situation is that you need to be healthy today to play at the intensity that is needed in the Premier League. So we have to see if he can absorb that or not.”"

They may seem like harsh words. But loyalty to his players has been a key shortcoming of Wenger’s management throughout his tenure. He has waited too long for players to overcome their fitness issues, only to be let down again as their bodies betray them once more. Wenger is right to take the cautious road.

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Cazorla, unfortunately, cannot be trusted to deliver, not because of talent or character or work rate. But because of injury. Until his body can be trusted, Wenger cannot offer him a new deal. Once that time comes, however, that contract should be offered as quick as one of the Spaniard’s pirouettes.