The Mirror reports that Arsenal striker Nicklas Bendtner looks set to finally leave the club after he confirmed that there were at least five managers in world football that were prepared to sign him.
The Dane who is best known for showing his pants after scoring in a Euro 2012 match has spent the last year on loan at Juventus, where he surprisingly failed to score a single goal.
This however does not appear to have put off these five clubs who are according to Bendtner prepared to pay the £3m fee to take him off his Arsenal’s hands.
The 25-year-old hasn’t named the interested parties but has perhaps purposely sought not to set the expectations too high:“Will it be good for me to go to a big club where I risk the bench? No, I’d rather go somewhere where the club is located just below the top where I can play every week.”
He presumably just wanted to put that out there, just in case there were some who might have tried to include him in the current centre forward merry-go-round with the likes of Falcao, Cavani and Lewandowski.
Bendtner joined Arsenal in 2004 but faced with competition from Jeremie Aliadiere to even warm the bench before the substitutes wanted to sit there, he went out on loan to Birmingham.
Following his return to Arsenal he did see more game time but never quite managed to be considered a first team regular.
The player became as well known for his off the field comments and perceived arrogance as anything he did on the field.
He is remembered by many Gunners fans for his spat on the pitch with Emmanuel Adebayor at White Hart Lane during Tottenham’s 5 – 1 Carling Cup victory over their rivals.
Adebayor apparently in a strop at having to come on as substitute, allegedly claimed that he was only required because Bendtner wasn’t very good, or one word beginning with S, to that effect.
It was probably one of the few occasions when Arsenal fans actually agreed with something that Adebayor had said and the Danish international’s career in North London went pretty much further downhill after that.
His loan to Juventus was preceded by a similar arrangement with Sunderland but after arrests for vandalising cars (of which he was later cleared) and drink driving he has continued to make more noise for non football related reasons than for playing the beautiful game.
One would hope that wherever he ends up, Bendtner can finally get his head down and make the best of the talent that he has.
Allen Whyte