Arsenal: David Luiz proves how asinine most rumors are
By Josh Sippie
After doing everything except saying formal farewell at Arsenal, David Luiz is now expected to stay. Thus we see how stupid rumors are.
This year has been a year of reckoning for this Arsenal defense. What started off in disastrous fashion, with David Luiz committing a brand new individual mistake every single match, has turned into one of the best defensive outputs this club has managed in about a decade.
Maybe it’s all thanks to Mikel Arteta, at least most of it, but we can’t lose track of David Luiz and his revival either. From frequent mistakes to staying another year at the club because he proved so valuable.
Only rumor interrupted that line of thinking when Luiz said that he wanted to go back to Benfica one day. Just like that, everyone and their sister believed that Luiz was leaving the club and not staying for that extra year. And they believed that because all the headlines spun it that way.
Arsenal will keep David Luiz, despite what the rumors said
No more than a week later, Luiz is set to stay at the club again because the headlines have caught up with themselves, turned their narrative completely around to reflect what the latest hearsay is.
Which is such an excellent microcosm of how stupid most rumors are. A simple statement by Luiz, taken way out of context, leads an entire fanbase to believe that he’s leaving the club only for the rumors to stop dead in their tracks when there’s no concrete evidence to unearth.
David Luiz’s desire to return to Benfica one day doesn’t conflict with a continued stay at Arsenal. Despite being 33-years-old and thus 34 when the time comes to move on next year, the Brazilian is still in top physical shape, has hardly missed any time for the Gunners, and could very easily play another year or two at Benfica after his extended stay at the Emirates.
The talk of him leaving never made sense anyway. Sure, Arteta wants to move the team forward, particularly this defense, but it’s not like there’s a time limit on that and as long as Luiz is still playing at the same level he played for the second half of this year, there shouldn’t be any urgency to replace him. Let some new guys grow into the role over the next year.
Again, common sense prevailed over the nonsensical and far too sensational rumors. One more victory for the good guys.