Today is the day that Arsenal Football Club finally released French midfielder Abou Diaby, who spent 10 years at the club but failed to really make a mark, due to being seriously injury prone. Alongside with Abou Diaby, youngsters Josh Vickers, Jack Jebb, Austin Lipman and Brandon Ormonde-Ottewill were all released following the end of their contracts at Arsenal Football Club.

Arsenal manager, Arséne Wenger, always believed in Abou Diaby and strongly believed that he possessed great quality, that could have seen him dominating the premier league in the holding role in the midfield.

However, injuries said otherwise as everytime it looked like Diaby was getting to his best form, he would suffer an injury. Remarkably in his 10 years at the club, Diabywho was once said to be the next Vieira, suffered a total of 42 injuries.

Youth academy products realesed

Jack Jebb, Josh Vickers, Austin Lipman and Brandon Ormonde-Ottewill are all Hale End academy products and three of the four, excluding Vickers, have represented England at youth level. The former has spent the last two seasons on loan with Football League outfit, Stevenage, while Vickers won Concord Rangers' Player of the Season whilst on loan this season. The 'keeper showed promise in Arsenal's run to the FA Youth Cup semi-final in 2014, but failed to break into the first team with Ryan Huddart ahead of him in the pecking order.

As for now, it is understood that Arséne Wenger will allow Abou Diaby use the training facilities at Arsenal's London Colney in order to gain fitness and aid the process of finding a new club. Similar opportunities have been offered to the likes of Sol Campbell, Thierry Henry and Jens Lehmann in the past, all of which have returned to the first team on a short term basis. 

VAVEL Logo
About the author
Seni  Oyewumi
Massive Arsenal fan who loves to share his thoughts on the Arsenal.