Arsenal’s young Dane, Nicklas Bendtner has made a name for himself by speaking his mind. He’s never afraid to go to the press to communicate his discontent with his lot at Arsenal. But has he proven himself on the football pitch? It’s a question worth examining after comments made by Bendtner to the Danish Press made it into the Mirror. With just two starts this season the Danish striker told the Press, “If the situation doesn’t improve – if I keep sitting on the bench at Arsenal – I must leave. It’s as simple as that.”

Of course, his meagre two starts this season can be put down to a troublesome injury that has kept him off the pitch for a significant portion of this season. Furthermore, Bendtner has never really managed to establish himself as a player in Wenger’s starting eleven. Despite flashes of brilliance, the young Dane is the type of player who tends to blow hot and cold. One day he’ll arrive with his shooting boots tied up nice and tight, the next day he’ll stroll onto the pitch with clown shoes and fail to have any impetus in the game whatsoever.

Bendtner continues, “I feel I’ve done the right things in the rehab and that I’m in the form of my life. I feel that I’m better than before the injury where I after all was in the line up every time and close to fulfilling my potential.” I would dispute that he’s in the form of his life. He’s still returning from injury and didn’t look entirely match fit on his last substitute appearance. This stinks of a mistranslation for me. I highly doubt that Nicklas considers a couple of goals in a couple of substitute appearances to be the form of his life.

The young Dane is nothing if not ambitious and self-confident and strikes me as the kind of player who would expect more from himself than that.

Granted he seems to be developing well this season, but as of yet there’s no tangible evidence that he’s earned a place in the starting eleven ahead of the likes of Marouane Chamakh. If he’s so confident in his ability, why doesn’t he get his head down, work hard and force his way into Wenger’s team? You get the feeling that if Bendtner were to work hard on the basics of the game (control, balance, passing) that Arsenal would have a real player on their hands, since he seems to be a natural goal-scorer. Perhaps Wenger eyes him as the future 20-25 goals-per-season striker that Arsenal has been missing the last couple of seasons.

Either way, Bendtner would do well to bide his time at Arsenal and trust that Wenger will oversee his development into a decent player. No other team currently competing for honours would have room for a player like Bendtner. No other team has a manager like Wenger who is a master at developing the abilities of his young players. It would be foolish of Bendtner to begin to look elsewhere just yet.

Wenger’s response was to the point: “He has a good level of confidence and that is not bad, but you have to justify it on the football pitch. He looked to me until very recently, since yesterday he is getting sharper in training. He will play games.” That should be all the assurance the young Dane needs.

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