Bacary Sagna is pivotal to Carl Jenkinson's development

28th March 2013 by Jeff @ArsenalTrend

Bacary Sagna has excelled tremendously over his six-year spell at the Emirates Stadium, even if the two leg breaks he suffered in separate incidents last season have served to dampen his impact recently. Sagna has been one of the most consistent players of Arsenal in the last 5 years. He has put up a lot of good performances for the Gunners in the last few seasons. But, in the recently played matches, he has struggled with his form Arsene Wenger in February 2013 was quick to defend Sagna and one could easily read from the lines that Wenger was keenly genuine in his words. "He has criticised his own form recently but the things you never question from Bacary are his commitment, his mental attitude, his desire to win and his intelligence," said Wenger. "If he has not been playing as he would expect, it is down to his injury. It takes time to come back, and he has played through a lot of pain – in fact, he is one of the strongest players I have met when it comes to doing that.

He's hugely respected here, and if he's not at the level we know he can achieve then we are tolerant because we know it's not down to a lack of commitment. It's just because he has come back from a long-term injury." Wenger concluded. Those are words from the man who knows Sagna more than all of us. Sagna has been average or has performed below par so far during on-going season and he has been no where near his best, many, always impatient Arsenal fans are already looking to get rid of him, I presume that will be a big mistake if Arsenal let Sagna go in the summer.

Many of the claims that Carl Jenkinson is ready to state a permanent claim to the right back position, I also disagree. Jenkinson's development may have been surprisingly rapid but, its glaring he still lacks the experience to be a world beater in his position, Sagna is exactly what he needs at the club to take his game to the next level. Lauren Etame-Biyer’s and Emmanuel Eboue were still at Arsenal as the clubs right back options in 2007, when Arsene Wenger signed a relatively unknown right-back, Bacary Sagna from AJ Auxerre from the French Ligue 1, many fans were puzzled, no one sees Sagna as Lauren's long-term replacement at the time.

Naturally and as expected, Emmanuel Eboue manned the right-back position after Lauren’s transition out of the team, Eboue put up some impressive performances in that position. Eboue not really at Lauren's level but, has a decent cross in him, and he supplied some sublime assists too. He's passionate about the club. At the time, Sagna had no doubt benefited from the wealth of experience of Lauren and learning the grades from Eboue when he arrived at the club in 2007. Sagna’s introduction to the team saw Wenger push Eboue further up the pitch, while Sagna's performances were so consistent that he earned a rightful place in the 2008 PFA Team of the Year. Sagna didn't rest on his laurels, as he continued to produce consistent displays week-in and week-out, and his eye-catching stellar performances brought an abrupt end to Eboue’s Arsenal career.

Bacary Sagna, now 30 years old still at the twilight of his career, ridiculous for many to believe he is finished. What about what he will offer likes of Carl Jenkinson, Nico Yennaris and Hector Bellerin ? It has been a dream start for Jenkinson, signed for £1.2m from Charlton Athletic, Bacary Sagna's injury at the start of the season has meant a run of starts in the league and in Europe. Already, Jenkinson has packed a lot into a short career. At the start of last season he was thrust into the Arsenal team for their Champions League away leg qualifier against Udinese, in which he played well, and then, infamously, for the 8-2 drubbing at Old Trafford in which Jenkinson was sent off. Such a tumultuous start might have damaged a young player but Jenkinson is made of tough stuff.

Sagna has featured in 22 games so far this season,12 in the Premier League, 3 in the Champions League, 2 in the FA Cup and 1 Capital One Cup games. In the 22 games, Sagna recorded 6 wins, 8 draws and 4 losses [3 home loss- vs Chelsea 1-2, vs Man City 0-2 & vs Bayern Munich 1-3]. Arsenal scored 45 goals and conceded 27 during those games with 8 clean sheets. More surprisingly, Sagna received just a single yellow card in all his 22 games so far this season. Jenkinson has featured in 21 games in total so far this season. 14 in Premier League, 1 in FA Cup, 1 in Capital one cup and 5 in Europe.

Jenkinson is the future no doubt but Sagna is exactly who he needs to tutor him and learn from, considering the fact that before Arsenal signed him last summer, Jenkinson played just nine games for Charlton with many of them at left-back, rather than his favoured right-back, although he feels comfortable on either side. Part of the unforgivable mistakes Arsene Wenger has made over the trophy drought years is letting go of our most experienced players especially when they turned 30 years, the new players or their replacement's with virtually no one to really look up to. When clubs such as Manchester United still have likes of Ryan Giggs, Rio Ferdinand and Paul Scholes in their ranks, or even Chelsea with Frank Lampard, Peter Czech, John Terry and Ashley Cole, all guiding the young and talented youngsters.

Arsenal can definitely benefit from such gesture. Despite glimpses of signs that Carl Jenkinson is capable to fill in the boots of Bacary Sagna, we can't compare six years of experience of top flight football with just nine games at Charlton Athletics. Older and experience players as Sagna, Rosicky and Arteta should remain in the Arsenal ranks. Arsenal’s under-19 right-back Hector Bellerin seems to know better as he continues to learn the ropes from the veteran. Bellerin has hailed the pedagogical influence of Bacary Sagna. Reflecting on the benefits of training with Arsene Wenger’s first team squad, Bellerin told London24: “I've trained with [the first team] a couple of times. It’s good to get involved with the top players and I enjoy it every time I get the chance. “Sagna is always an example for me because he is a very, very good right-back,” he continued. “He assesses me and helps me with everything. It’s a great experience to train with him.”

That's the benefit the upcoming youngsters get, when they have experienced players around them, its the exact antidote they need to become better players. Recently, there have been speculations that Sagna wants to leave Arsenal. When asked about that, the French defender said, “There is nothing like that. I don’t want to take a transfer at this point of time. I will continue playing in Arsenal shirt till the completion of my contract.” The future Sagna has been thrown into doubt after the 30 year-old rejected the 12 month extension to his current deal, which would keep him at the club until 32 years, the player rejected the new deal from the club despite having only just one year left on his current contract. Talks are still on-going between Arsenal and Sagna's representative as the player opts for a new two year deal. Talks have been positive as a similar deal offered Tomas Rosicky is currently being worked out.

What do you Gunners think? Should we looked to keep Sagna? Feel free to lets us know in the comments below.

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