Former Arsenal Defender Takes Dig At Emery With Wenger Claims

Krystian Bielik felt that he would have gotten a fair shot at Arsenal if Arsene Wenger was still in charge of the club.

The 21-year-old was sold off to Derby County this summer for a neat £9.5m sum. He made several appearances for Arsenal’s youth sides but none for the senior team.

Brought in from Legia Warsaw when he was only 17, it is fair to say that Bielik’s prospects just did not pan out with the Gunners. He spent loan spells at Birmingham City, Charlton Athletic and Walsall but still could not impress the Arsenal coaches enough.

However, Bielik took a slight dig at the current Arsenal boss by claiming he would have offered a bigger opportunity by the Spaniard’s predecessor.

“Is leaving Arsenal my failure? No. I don’t feel that way at all. I know that if Arsene Wenger was still working at the club, I would get a chance,” he told Polish outlet Przeglad Sportowy.

Bielik came into Arsenal at a very difficult period when the club was going through a huge managerial transition and their defence seemed to be at their worst in decades. While the senior staff were scrambling to put able bodies in their backline, Bielik’s inexperience hardly had any space for consideration.

Plus, competition was always high with youngsters like Konstantinos Mavropanos and Rob Holding showcasing much more promise. It might be unfair to say that Emery was full ignorant of the Pole’s talents. If such was the case, Arsenal would have spent €30m on William Saliba, an 18-year-old defender from Saint Etienne or the fans would have seen the emergence of Reiss Nelson, Joe Willock and Emile Smith-Rowe.