Arsenal Will Deal With Cesc, Nasri Departures, Says Djourou

Arsenal defender Johan Djourou has remained sanguine about the departure of star players Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri, and claimed that the speculation doesn’t affect the other team members. The Swiss centre back instead stated that all their efforts are directed towards improving the team’s performance next season and trying to end their six year silverware drought.

Djourou says someone will make the step-up

Speaking to BBC UK, Djourou said that rumours linking players away from the club were inevitable, but everything had to be taken with a pinch of salt. He displayed a hint of ‘que sera sera’ about Fabregas’s move and instead preferred to channel his concentration towards preparing for next season. He said-

“We know there will be stories but we know what we’re aiming for and what our goal is,”

“We want to be successful so we don’t really get distracted by this. If he [Fabregas] goes, he goes.”

Djourou also put forward the theory that when important players leave, someone else from the team always steps up and expresses himself better. He hopes that this will be the case if Nasri and Fabregas decide to move to new pastures.

When asked if someone could make the step up, he said-

“It could be true because when you look at players who normally come out and express themselves, it’s when someone goes,”

“When Thierry [Henry] went, Cesc expressed himself even more, but the two together [Fabregas and Nasri] are great so you’d rather keep them. If someone goes then I’m sure someone will step up.”

Talking about Arsenal’s recent failures to land a trophy and always fall at the final hurdle, Djourou betrayed puzzlement to the fact that Arsenal always missed out at the last second. He refused to blame lack of experience as an excuse anymore, saying that the current Arsenal team had been together a long time and were experienced, albeit young.

He said-

“Sometimes you’re missing a little something to give you what you deserve,”

“Last season we were so close to trophies but also so far. There was a little bit missing but it’s not much.

“It’s hard to say what’s missing. We have players who are still young and who will grow up. Experience is very important but now if you look around this team we have been here for a long time, so it’s no more an excuse to say we don’t have experience.”

Arsenal fans will hope that the club can quickly lay their finger on what’s going wrong and make amends immediately.