Thomas Vermaelen appears to be on the verge of a move to Manchester United. Reports are now saying that a £10 million bid is set be made for the big Belgian. Arsene Wenger was quoted as saying “I cannot guarantee he will stay, but should he go I would bring another centre-back in for sure”.
The fact that Arsenal are even considering letting him go shows how far they’ve come. Two years ago Vermaelen was announced as Arsenal’s captain and he appeared to be the only reliable aspect of a very leaky defence (they conceded eight to Manchester United the year before). Now he lies third in the pecking order behind Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker and he is unsure whether or not he wants to extend his stay with the club.
Vermaelen was born in Kapellen, Belgium and as a youngster he played for Germinal Ekeren (they changed their name to Germinal Beerschot a year before he left). When he was 15 he was joined the famous Ajax academy but had to wait four years for his professional debut before spending a season on loan at RKC Waalwijk. When he returned to Ajax he made his breakthrough helping Ajax to win the KNVB Cup (Dutch version of the FA cup) in 2006 and 2007.
On 19th June 2009 Vermaelen signed for Arsenal for an initial €10 million (later rose to €12 million) on a four-year contract. He had a brilliant debut season with the Gunners, playing 33 times and scoring a career-best seven goals earning the nickname the ‘Verminator’. He was named in the PFA Team of the season. Over the next couple of seasons Vermaelen played well but struggled with injuries.
In August 2012, Vermaelen was named captain after Robin van Persie left to move Manchester United. In December he missed the deciding penalty in the League Cup game against Bradford City, this was followed by a series of disappointing performances that led to him being dropped for the crucial Champions League game against Bayern Munich. Last season he was clearly third choice behind Mertesacker and Koscielny and only made 14 appearances in the Premier League. This clearly affected his Belgium career because he only started one game at the recent World Cup and was substituted in that game.
With both Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic both leaving Manchester United this summer it would appear that Vermaelen would have a good chance of being first choice with Phil Jones still developing and neither Chris Smalling nor Jonny Evans convincing in the big games.
To summarise, Vermaelen is a quality centre-back who is comfortable on the ball and has decent pace as well as being an aerial threat but has struggled with injuries. Louis van Gaal certainly seems to keen to sign him and at the age of 28 he probably has at least four more years at the top level and at £10 million wouldn’t be too expensive.