Fabrizio Romano revealed on Friday that Arsenal and Dani Ceballos have decided to part ways.
The Real Madrid midfielder is on a second season-long loan at Arsenal but it hasn’t really worked out.
And Romano revealed on Twitter that a decision has been made to not sign Ceballos on a permanent basis this summer.
The Italian journalist also added that a decision was agreed on this ‘weeks ago’.
And it makes you wonder why did Mikel Arteta start him in Arsenal’s biggest game of the season on Thursday night?
Ceballos made the first XI for the Gunners’ Europa League semi-final first leg away to Villarreal.
But the 24-year-old lasted only 57 minutes after being sent off for two yellow cards, as the North Londoners lost 2-1.
Hindsight is a great thing but it does now look even more suspect that Arteta started him in a game of this magnitude.
There were already question marks over Ceballos’s form because, honestly, he hasn’t been playing that well.
But to include him in the first XI, while knowing that he’s definitely going back to Madrid, now looks a very dodgy decision on Arteta’s part, in light of his red card.
Nobody is saying that Ceballos’s red card is directly linked to the possibility that he already knows he is leaving.
But surely he can’t have gone into that match as motivated to win as the nine other Arsenal-owned players in Arteta’s first XI.
Win, lose or draw, Ceballos knew he wouldn’t be an Arsenal player in a few months and that, in the semi final of a European competition, probably isn’t an ideal mindset to have before the game.
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