Thomas Vermaelen

Since moving to Barcelona, Belgian international Thomas Vermaelen has been unable to feature for the Spanish club. It has made him a target amongst the media especially after having cost around £ 15 million in transfer fees.

The defender had been keen to leave Arsenal for the last couple of years, but this move finally arrived in the form of a £ 15 million transfer. He was widely anticipated to be the replacement for Carlos Puyol, who had just retired after decades of service. Further, the uncertainty surrounding Gerard Pique also made the centre back position a highly vulnerable place for Barcelona.

A string of injury problems meant that Vermaelen has been unable to make a debut even after almost 6 months of being Barcelona player. He was widely expected to make his much anticipated debut towards the end of February. However, even this has evaded the Catalan club after it is learnt that the 29-year-old has suffered a new setback in his attempts to make his first start for the team. The plethora of injury problems is likely to be a major worry for Barcelona given that they have made a sizeable investment in the player. Last season, he made 21 appearances for Arsenal with most of them as a substitute.

This is the second major season where injuries have robbed him of making an impact. During the 2010-11 season, Vermaelen featured in only five matches throughout the whole campaign. This was the start of his injury troubles and also the decline of his Arsenal career. After this injury ravaged the campaign, Vermaelen saw his place in the Arsenal team being taken by Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker on a permanent basis. Despite being a captain, Vermaelen never made it to the field for many important matches for the Premier League outfit.

Former Liverpool striker John Aldridge reckons that manage Brendan Rodgers may have missed a great opportunity to take advantage of the recent good form shown by defender Kolo Toure.

The Ivory Coast international made a rare start in the Champions League group stage match against Real Madrid. It was a surprise inclusion given thatToure had played only one minute of Premier League football this season. The 33-year-old is on the fringes of first-team and he is widely expected to leave the club in January. However, his impressive performance against Madrid has called for inclusion into the team especially at a time when Liverpool have been struggling defensively.

The club signed Dejan Lovren from Southampton for £ 20 million, but he has been a major disappointment. Despite having been partnered with Martin Skrtel almost every match, Lovren is yet to show any signs of a partnership developing between the two. This has seen Liverpool make no improvements in the defensive area of the pitch, while they have also regressed in an attacking sense. The club conceded more than 50 league goals last season and they are on course to doing the same.Aldridge says thatToure showed enough against Madrid, especially by playing against Cristiano Ronaldo, that he still has enough quality.

“Brendan is the manager and stands or falls by his decisions, but I have to say I was surprised that Kolo Toure was left out following his performance in Spain.He was by far our best player in the Bernabeu and had a great game.He is playing with confidence and I would have asked him to continue on Saturday.If he is playing with confidence, that will spread to his defensive partners and the goalkeeper – and suddenly the defensive unit immediately starts to look more secure,” said Aldridge after the 2-0 defeat against Chelsea.

Thomas Vermaelen has had a very difficult period since joining Barcelona in the summer for around £ 15 million.

The Belgian international was widely expected to plug the gap left by Carlos Puyol’s retirement. However, Vermaelen is yet to make his debut for the club even though it is almost 6 months since he made the move. The injury problems faced by the 29-year-old as certainly not new given that he managed to make only 21 appearances for Arsenal last season. However, Barcelona would have expected much more from the Belgian when they brought him in the summer.

Some of the injuries that have affected Vermaelen include hamstring problems and knee issues. Barcelona have put the estimated recovery time at around four months, which may effectively rule him out for the season. Only a few weeks ago, the prospect of Vermaelen returning back to the Premier League was suggested given that he may not establish himself in the Barcelona first-team. Arsenal even looked at the possibility of bringing the player back due to their own injury crisis. Such transfer rumours have been put to halt due to this new injury.

“Thomas Vermaelen successfully underwent surgery on Wednesday on the semitendinosus muscle in his right hamstring.The recovery period is estimated at approximately four months,” said a statement from the Catalan club. Barcelona have not missed the defender much given that Jeremy Mathieu has been able to excel in defence. The 31-year-old has featured in most of the la Liga matches this season. But, Luis Enrique has not had a steady centre back partnership this season due to the poor form of Gerard Pique, which has led to the Spanish international being dropped for some high-profile matches. Barcelona remain two points behind table leaders Real Madrid after 13 matches in the season.

The Belgian defender of Barcelona, Thomas Vermaelen still has not managed to make an official appearance with the Spanish club due to not being completely recovery from a hamstring injury. Vermaelen completed a move from Arsenal to Barcelona on August of the current year with a transfer fee of €15 million.
Vermaelen was brought to the Camp Nou as a player that can reinforce the defensive section of Barcelona as they have recently saw Carles Puyol hanging up his boots and retiring from playing competitive football and the introduction of Vermaelen is expected to help fill the absence left by Puyol.
Out of the 6 Spanish League matches that have been played Barcelona still has not conceded a single goal as the team of Luis Enrique is going through a superb start of the season scoring goals after goals and not conceding any.
The arrival of Thomas Vermaelen will only further improve the defensive record which has been performing so well recently in the Spanish League.
It still remains exactly unsure as to when Vermaelen will be back in action and ready to make his debut appearance for Barcelona as Luis Enrique a few weeks stated that Vermaelen was fully fit and prepared to play a match for an entire 90 minutes but more recently it has been revealed that the former coach of As.Roma does not want to rush Vermaelen and might want to give the defender and extended period of time recovering before entering the pitch in an official league match.
Barcelona’s start of the season in the Spanish League has been superb but they have suffered a setback in the Champions League after losing 3-2 against PSG and the arrival of Vermaelen can help the Spanish club when they perform in the European tournament and aid in their progression to the next stages of the Champions League.

Thomas Vermaelen is currently trying to find a good, rented apartment for himself and his better half, Polly Parsons, in Barcelona.

Vermaelen has recently made his way to Spain after being bought by Barcelona FC. Manchester United was interested in his services as well, but, at the end, the deal was sealed by Barcelona as they paid a transfer fee of about 15 million Pounds to Arsenal.

Yesterday, Interacting to the Spanish press for the first time since becoming a Barca player, Vermaelen said, “Moving to Barca wasn’t a tough call. I don’t think there is any player around who would have let such an opportunity go.”

Vermaelen might have come to Barca thinking that he would get starting opportunities at the club straightaway, but, the Spanish media doesn’t think that it’s going to be the case.

A couple of days ago, one of the leading dailies in Spain selected the XI players who would ideally be starting for Barcelona in the first few weeks of the season and Vermaelen’s name wasn’t there in that.

According to that daily which is named Mundo Deportivo, it is Gerard Pique who is most likely to pair with Jeremy Mathieu in the heart of defence for Barcelona.

Vermaelen didn’t play that much of football last season either at club or international level. He featured only about 14 times for the Gunners in the league, while, he was in the starting XI of his national team Belgium in just one match in 2014 FIFA World Cup.

In total, Vermaelen played 150 matches for Arsenal in his 5-year stint there.

Meanwhile, there have been reports that La Blaugrana are not done with their shopping of players just yet as they are looking to get a couple more in the squad, one of which is rumoured to be the Colombia international Juan Cuadrado.

Arsene Wenger appears resigned to the fact that defender Thomas Vermaelen will leave the club. The Belgian international has been linked with a move away from Arsenal for the last few transfer windows, but Manchester United have emerged as the surprise destination for the 28-year-old. Despite being on the sidelines consistently for the last few seasons, United see Vermaelen has someone who can effectively replace Patrice Evra and Ferdinand at the same time. This is because of his versatility that allows him to play at centre back or left back.

Further, since he has only 12 months left on his contract, he is unlikely to cost more than £ 6 million. This is substantially lower than the £ 10 million Arsenal paid to Ajax for his transfer in 2009. Only a few summers ago, he was linked with a £ 20 million move to Barcelona. It was the start of his decline at Arsenal after Arsene Wenger dropped due to the transfer rumours affecting him. Despite not playing regularly, Vermaelen has been part of the Belgian national team and was also seen at the World Cup 2014. He recently refused to give assurance that he would remain an Arsenal player after the transfer window.

Arsenal and United have recently negotiated in the transfer of Robin van Persie, who joined Old Trafford in a £24 million deal. “I cannot guarantee he will stay, but should he go I would bring another centre-back in for sure. I haven’t spoken to him [Wilshere] so it’s very difficult for me to make any statement. I know what you can make of pictures – I have to speak to him really to see what happened before I come out publicly,” said Wenger about the future of Vermaelen, while also speaking about Jack Wilshere being caught smoking once again.

Thomas Vermaelen is willing to make a move to Old Trafford this summer. He’s been approached by the Red Devils and both the parties are believed to have reached an agreement on wages. Now, it’s all up to Arsenal. If they have a deal with the Red Devils on transfer fee, Vermaelen, in all likelihood, would be seen representing Manchester United in the Premier League next season.

According to the reports, Vermaelen has had a chat with the Arsenal management and he has made them aware of his desire to move to United. He has even requested them to reach an agreement with the Red Devils and let him go there.

Vermaelen has been a part of the Arsenal squad for some time now. He was actually a regular in their starting XI at one point of time, but, he fell down the pecking order last season. Arsene Wenger, the Gunners boss, preferred a couple of youngsters ahead of him in the back line.

Arsenal’s approach in the transfer market in the last couple of years suggests that they would not try to stop Vermaelen if United comes with a good deal. The Gunners have not hesitated in selling high class players for big money recently and with Vermaelen’s contract not too far away from getting expired, the chances are very high that they would let the Belgian leave.

However, one thing that needs to be noted is that Arsenal shares a very intense rivalry with Manchester United in the Premier League and there have not been too many occasions in the past when a player from either of these two clubs has made a move to the other. So, it would be interesting to see what happens in Vermaelen’s case.

Thomas Vermaelen was seen on the bench of Arsenal during their title winning triumph against Hull City and even though the Belgium defender did not play a single minute of the match, he still described details concerning winning the FA Cup as it was according to him an unbelievable feeling and accomplishment.

“I have played before in the FA cup so it was a good feeling. That is what we have waited for, winning things. It was a long day and at the end it was worth it as we won the trophy’’.

“But when you are on the bench it is even worse. When you are on the pitch you can affect the game. But when you are on the bench there are a lot of nerves as you can’t do anything, especially with the game going into extra time. It was not easy. It was unbelievable we lifted it again after so many years.” Vermaelen said.

Vermaelen has a reason to be happy as this FA Cup trophy will release some of the pressure that has been created for the past few months not only towards the club but especially Arsene Wenger and this has given the team and the coach some breathing space.

Even with their recent title winning accomplishment, Wenger has his work cut out as there are a number of changes which are expected to be done in the squad and the future of Thomas Vermaelen still remains unclear.

The Belgium defender has not been a consistent starter for Arsene Wenger in this season as the French manager prefers utilizing the services of Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker and Vermaelen was not even used during their crucial match against Hull City which shows how his influence has been downgraded.

“I can’t talk about my future now. We’ll have to see,” Vermaelen told Sky Sports News.

Vermaelen refused to talk about his future with Arsenal but with the summer transfer window just around the corner, it’s a crucial time for him and the club to discuss and settle about what is going to be done.

Arsenal defender Thomas Vermaelen is of the opinion that the grit and spirit that Arsenal showed in the comeback win over Wigan in the FA Cup semifinals will help them finish in the top four. Arsenal have been concentrating on the FA Cup semi-final for the last few weeks. This coupled with a poor form in the league has allowed the likes of Everton to close the gap. In fact, Everton have overtaken Arsenal after having played the same number of matches. The blues have a two-point advantage over the gunners with four matches remaining.

Arsenal’s poor form came to an end after the club managed a win over Wigan athletic on penalties to reach the FA Cup finals. Vermaelen played a big role in this comeback victory, as he started ahead of the regular centre back Laurent Koscielny. Despite being the Arsenal captain, Vermaelen has often been on the bench for Arsenal. He has been linked with a move away from the club. For long periods of the match, it looked like Wigan would be able to create one of the shocks in the FA Cup by sneaking into the finals after a goal from Jordi Gomez in the second half.
Per Mertesacker, though, equalised with less than 10 minutes remaining and Arsenal won 4-2 on penalties.

“There was a lot of talk about needing the result for a few different reasons, for the manager and showing we could fight and I think we did that. It will give us a boost for the rest of the season now, we can move forward with confidence. I’m very happy that we’ll go to the final, that’s why you play these games of course. It was a long game with extra-time and penalties, it’s never easy but it’s a good win,” said Vermaelen.

Thomas Vermaelen’s season with Arsenal has seen him making a limited amount of appearances for Arsene Wenger and he already has released statements of the possibility of him leaving the Premier League club at the end of the current campaign with Napoli being a strong candidate on signing him.

The Belgian defender remains unsure whether or not if he will sign a new contract with Arsenal or if he is going to be remaining with the Premier League club for the upcoming seasons.

“I do occasionally have the chance to play, but you must remember that the players in front of me are incredibly fit and play almost all the time”

“Of course I was hoping for more playing time. I do not know whether I will sign a new contract. We’ll see at the end of the season. We are very much in the title race and have a chance of winning the cup. My future is currently not on the agenda. These are worries for later.” Vermaelen said.

Vermaelen has more than 1 year remaining on his contract with Arsenal but he will only stay with the club if he can get guaranteed playing time. If he cannot get a secured spot in the starting lineup of Wenger, it is likely that the 28 years old defender will be leaving the club with Napoli on the horizon.

With the Premier League reaching its last few months, Chelsea and Manchester City are appearing to be the top candidates on winning the Premier League title this season but Arsenal still remains in the running with just a few points behind the top dogs and Vermaelen still has hope that Arsenal can win it.

“All of the teams are strong and every team can beat another. We still have to believe in it. Every game has its own story. It’s a pity that we haven’t played well in the away games against the top teams, but there’s nothing wrong with our mental strength’’. Vermaelen added on.