Dani Ceballos hasn’t played for Arsenal under Mikel Arteta yet.
Mikel Arteta has admitted to Arsenal’s official website that he doesn’t yet know if Dani Ceballos will be returning to Spain.
Arsenal signed the Real Madrid midfielder on a season-long loan last summer, paying a hefty £15 million fee for that arrangement [The Daily Mail] – not including his wages.
Despite the money, Ceballos hasn’t been a big player for the Gunners, managing only 906 minutes across all competitions, and hasn’t got off the bench in their last four games.
The Spaniard was sidelined when Arteta replaced Unai Emery as the Emirates Stadium club’s head coach.
This week, Ceballos hinted that his future was not in North London with a response to a post from Hector Bellerin on Instagram, admitting that he would miss his compatriot’s left-footed goals.
And Arteta concedes that he hasn’t seen enough of Ceballos to know whether he can do anything with him.
He told Arsenal’s website: “When I joined the club he wasn’t here, he was in Madrid because he was doing his rehab – for over a month – in Madrid with the team that owns him.
“And then, when I came here, he was doing his rehab and by the first two or three weeks he was getting back to fitness and I haven’t seen much of him because he’s only trained with us for a week or 10 days, you know. So it’s very early to assess what I can or cannot do with him. I heard about all those things but I have nothing to comment.”
Ceballos is a talented player but it seems like Arteta has little use for him, even if he claims he’s undecided.
He’s been regularly on the bench for a month without getting an appearance under Arteta, and his injury earlier in the season wasn’t serious or lengthy enough to suggest Arteta could be easing him back into action.
Paying that much for a loan is crazy to begin with, but especially when the player has contributed as much – or as little – as Ceballos.
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