enough for a relegation dogfight.
By the summer of 2016, shortly after
starring for Germany at the Olympic
Games, Gnabry decided to call time on
his English adventure and insisted on
leaving North London to join northern
German side Werder Bremen in a
£4.25million deal.
He had undoubtedly made a great
deal of progress at Arsenal, successfully
making the transition from the under-
18 side to the first-team fringes while
receiving a thorough grounding in top-
quality attacking football. But the bottom
line was he was desperately short of
game minutes. Now 21, something had to
give. Why stick with the status quo when
West Brom labelled him a dud and
Wenger had only given him nine starts?
Many Arsenal fans thought the player
should have shown more patience and
loyalty. However, they were not down and
out on the squad depth chart, sat behind
such as Alexis Sanchez, Alex Oxlade-
Chamberlain, Alex Iwobi, Santi Cazorla
and Danny Welbeck. Whatever Wenger’s
misgivings, the break had to be made.
Former Bayern and Germany
midfielder turned TV pundit Dietmar
Hamann is convinced Gnabry made the
right decision in quitting the Premier
League, explaining: “In England, young
players are always being loaned out.
Twenty-five guys make it onto a squad
and the rest are left to their own devices.
They have to take their chances. You
have to remember that, in 2015, West
Bromwich coach Tony Pulis said that
Gnabry was not good enough for his club.
“For me, Gnabry now rates among the
five best wingers in the world. His story is
proof of his unbelievably strong character.
“As well as being a tremendously gifted
footballer, he has an indomitable spirit.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained is his
motto. Hats off to him. In life, you must
never give up. There’s always another day.
Gnabry has shown that. “
Returning to Germany in 2016 to playfor Bremen was the best possible
outcome for the youngster, a case
of a step back prior to the great leap
forward. Bremen were only a mid-ranking
Bundesliga side, but what mattered most
was his vastly increased workload. At
Bremen he played every week, going on
to score 11 goals in 27 Bundesliga games
and thrilling the Weserstadion faithful
with his sizzling sprints, energy and
moments of sublime wizadry.
While at Werder he won his first cap
for Germany, marking the occasion with
a hat-trick in the 8-0 hammering of San
Marino. The last instance of a German
international scoring three times on their
debut was Cologne’s Dieter Muller, who
managed a treble in the 4-2 win against
Yugoslavia in the 1976 Euro semi-finals.
Over and above his goals against San
Marino, Gnabry was the most impressive
player on the pitch that night, dribbling
past defenders at will and continually
making great off the ball runs. “The
Bundestrainer wanted me to play with
freshness,” he said after the game. “I
think I was successful in that.”
Always alert to the best talent in the
country, Bayern came calling for him inSerge Gnabry
Debut...playing
against San MarinoFrustration...game
time at Arsenal was
severely limited