Suddenly Per Mertesacker Doesn't Seem So Bad After All?

Last season Per Mertesacker took a lot of stick. He was dug out more than a hole on the beach in beautiful Skegness.

I would bet that at least 78% of people I know had a pop at the German giant. Talking of bets, get great offers and free bets at FreBets. 

All the Caroline Flack he took was, in my own very humble opinion, totally bare bang out of order.

Big Per was hung, drawn and quartered before he even had a chance to establish himself in the side.

Why people judged him after just a few months was beyond me. But then football fans are quite fickle like that aren't they?  

Here, was a German international, with 42315 caps, and people wrote him off as fast as Kim Kardashian pulls down her knickers when a gangster rapper strolls past.

The amount of arguments I've had over Per has been astounding. But finally now, he is getting the credit he deserves.

Mertesacker needed a chance, and at the beginning he was never given one.

I know he looks odd because he can graze from the top of a tree. I know he probably turns slower than a tortoise in a wheelchair.

But he was always gonna come good because he is a great player. A player with brains.

He needed time to adapt to a different country, a country where football is fast and full of action. He needed a decent pre-season. And he needed a chance.

You don't play for Germany 42315 times without being decent.

We, at Arsenal, are lucky to have Per Mertesacker in our squad. Just as we are lucky to have Thomas Vermaelen, Laurent Koscielny and Sebastien Squillaci (cough) too.

Arsene Wenger has top, top quality at his disposal in defence. Three superb defenders and its difficult to leave one out.

The system we play means one has to sit out and I fear that Mertesacker will always be the fall guy.

I think he should be first-choice but I'm not Arsene am I? I don't pick the team, I just play Football Manager 2012.

Per brings the kind of calm to the back-line that only Herbal Tea from one of them Chinese shops in the high-street can provide.

He calms Thomas or Laurent down and brings the best out of them. Either of them. Like a soothsayer.

I love all three of them. In fact, I wish they were all my children. But of the three I would choose Per over the other two to start. All day long.

Competition is fine and good. It's healthier than an apple a day. We have that now at Arsenal.

But all those doubters out there, the people that said Per was pony, suddenly he doesn't seem so bad now does he?

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Keep It Goonerish............