Arsenal: Santi Cazorla story desperate for an ending

Arsenal are drumming up talks of a Santi Cazorla extensions. This is cute and all, but this story really needs to come to an end, for progress’s sake.

Everyone loves Santi Cazorla. It’s one of the few things that all Arsenal fans can agree on. It’s hard not to love a player who is always smiling and plays every position asked of him effectively. In fact, he is loved so much that there is a school of thought that if he had been healthy, none of these bad things would have ever happened.

That’s a bit excessive. But there is some validity in the concept that things might well have been different (even in the slightest), had Cazorla been with the team.

Cazorla suffered an achilles injury in October of 2016 and it got to the point where he nearly had to have his foot amputated. Operation after operation cost him precious time in an Arsenal kid and, before you knew it, it was just expected that we would never see him again.

Here we are, a year and a half later, and Cazorla is 33 years old. He is improving, according to the latest reports, and that is fantastic to hear. But as his deal runs up at the end of the year, it seemed unlikely that we would ever see him again.

That is, until Arsene Wenger stepped in and said that hope is not lost.

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"“Hopefully he can come back before the end of the season to make a check up to see if he can play again in the Premier League. If he could reach that level we would discuss a contract.”"

Those were Wenger’s words, as quoted by the Guardian. And while initially I was hesitant to even consider the return of Cazorla, given all that has happened, I think that the little caveat that Wenger added serves as the barrier between dream and reality.

He has to prove that he can play at the Premier League level again. And far be it from me to pre-judge him (yet I will still endeavor to), it seems unlikely that, at 33 years old and with this serious injury in the near past, he would be the same player he was when last we saw him.

Which is why I think this story needs an ending. I would love to say that he could stay on and be a Per Mertesacker type player, but this last year with Mertesacker has been a struggle, because he really hasn’t done anything and, honestly, he should have retired after last year.

Next: 3 Players Helped By Arsene Wenger Exit

I don’t want to be in that same situation with Cazorla. There are options out there that play like Cazorla. Go after them. Build for the future. Don’t cling to the past.

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