Arsenal: Takuma Asano remains Arsene Wenger’s last hurrah

Arsenal under Arsene Wenger consistently gave Asian players a chance, but with Takuma Asan dangling by a thread, is that phase over?

Arsene Wenger was not afraid to try new things during his time at Arsenal, and that came to typify his reign, particularly in the transfer market. And given his time at Nagoya Grampus, it’s understandable why Wenger continued to dip into the Asian football market, trying to unearth talent in a talent pool that doesn’t often get notice.

But for as much as he tried, it’s never worked out. Junichi Inamoto kicked off Wenger’s forays East, but other than shirt sales, he didn’t make an impact at Arsenal and never even made a league appearance for them in the midfield, though he did go on to find some happiness in Europe.

After Inamoto came Park Chu-young, who succeeded where Inamoto failed – he got a whole seven minutes of league play before fading into obscurity.

I was most excited about Ryo Miyaichi, however. His blistering speed and ability to burst down the wings gave me the most hopes of any of the three, but after just 17 league minutes and countless loans, he is no more.

Takuma Asano stepped into the void. Something tells me that Wenger just always wanted to find an Asian player to star for the Gunners, but with Asano as his last hope, it’s not looking good.

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Like Miyaichi, Asano had tons of speed, a good track record, and a lot of promise to be the star that Wenger had countless times tried to unearth.

But Asano has spent two years on loan and nothing is happening. This year, at Hannover, he is getting absolutely battered, not just in a struggle for minutes, but on the scoreboard. He is currently on a fast track to helping Hannover 96 get relegated and he’s been powerless to stop it. In his past six matches, Hannover have lost by a combined score of 23-2, with Asano notching an average of 65 minutes per appearance.

Again, the minutes he’s playing, when he’s playing, are a nice tally, but the team as a whole is sinking, and Asano has only plucked one goal out of the madness.

When Asano’s loan comes up at the end of the season, it’s hard to anticipate what will happen. On the one hand, he hasn’t done much of anything this year, but on the other, what was he supposed to do? Hannover has been awful.

Maybe the futile efforts in the Bundesliga will actually translate to having more talent around him at the Emirates. Or maybe I’m just bleeding optimism for no reason. Whatever the case, he’s Wenger’s fourth and final chance to unearth an Asian player that survived in the top tier of England.