When quizzed on the prospect of Steven Nzonzi returning to the Premier League, specifically Arsenal, in the January transfer window, former England international Emile Heskey couldn’t hide his confusion.
Why, Heskey asked, would Arsenal consider signing a 30-something midfielder whose best years lie in the past?
“I like Steven Nzonzi – I like him a lot from the time he was playing at Blackburn Rovers. He was linked to Arsenal for a long time and I was surprised they never took that up. But now, being the age he is, is it really viable?” Heskey pondered in an exclusive interview with HITC.
“You can go up and down a lot of youth set-ups and find someone with the same energy (as Nzonzi), definitely not with the same experience but the same energy and ability to do the job.
“Don’t get me wrong, (the youngsters) will learn from players like Steven Nzonzi but I don’t think that’s the right way – or the Arsenal way.”
Arsenal will never know whether Steven Nzonzi would have worked out
At times Arsenal have turned to the transfer market in search of much-needed experience to balance out all that natural exuberance.
But while Willian, Mathieu Debuchy, Stephan Lichtsteiner, Kim Kallstrom and the returning Mathieu Flamini brought a lengthy CV to the Emirates dressing room, they offered little in the way of energy. They all struggled to slot into a side attempting to play a high-paced, progressive brand of football.
With that in mind, it’s hard to imagine 32-year-old Nzonzi dictating the play against the likes of Manchester City, Chelsea or Liverpool.
The 2018 World Cup winner has had a miserable time of it in recent seasons too, a big-money move to Roma proving little more than a colossal waste of time and money.
And, this afternoon, Nzonzi finally brought an end to speculation surrounding his future by putting pen to paper at Al-Rayyan, the Qatari outfit that also snared James Rodriguez last week.
As with Everton’s £200,000-a-week misfit, the pace of the modern game appears to have passed Nzonzi by.
And, after the Willian experiment blew up spectacularly in Arteta’s face, fans would be forgiven for hoping the days of overpaid veterans are long gone at the Emirates.
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