Timeline
SEP 26, 2012
Makes his first-team
debut for Arsenal,
coming on as a sub
in a 6-1 League
Cup win against
Coventry City.OCT 20, 2012
Plays in the Premier
League for the first
time, as a sub, as
Arsenal lose 1-0 at
Norwich City.OCT 24, 2012
Appears as a sub for
a first Champions
League appearance
as Arsenal lose 2-0
at home to Schalke.SEP 22, 2013
Starts a Premier
League game for the
first time as Arsenal
beat Stoke City 3-1.SEP 28, 2013
Scores his first goal
for Arsenal, in a 2-1
win at Swansea City
that puts his side
top of the Premier
League.2014 and he also had to forgo the
2018 edition of the same competition,
scratched from the selection stakes by
a nasty springtime adductor tear.
In an interview with Kicker magazine
in mid-April 2018, up-and coming
Hoffenheim coach Julian Nagelsmann,
who is now in charge of RB Leipzig,
offered an interesting insider’s view of
Gnabry’s “China Doll” tendencies.
“Unfortunately, he did not play a lot for
us up until Christmas,” said Nagelsmann.
“We had to get to grips with this problem
after the winter break. As a youngster, he
had a relatively high number of injuries.
“During the week at Arsenal his
mindset was to hold back a little [in
training], even when physically he was
in a position to give it his all. To our eyes,
that wasn’t the right approach.
“You can only come up to scratch on a
matchday if you’ve gone all out in training
in the preceding days.
“You can’t cut corners and say that all
will be well at the weekend. That’s how
injuries happen, when you have not
prepared as intensively as you should.
“We’ve found a good method to keep
him injury free in the second half of the
season. This has played a big part in his
development.”
Sadly Nagelmann had spoken too
soon. Just a fortnight later, Gnabry was
en route to the infirmary once again
seriously, hobbling off against Hanover
with heavily bandaged thigh. The result
of a scan was a badly damaged adductor
and his Russia 2018 dream was over.
Incidentally, Nagelsmann was not thethe summer of 2017, only having to
stump up €8m to trigger a release
clause. Bayern, who regarded him
as a replacement for ageing Dutch
winger Arjen Robben, did not need him
immediately though and sent him on a
12-month secondment to Hoffenheim,
where he would again post great
numbers, with 10 goals and as many
assists in 22 Bundesliga outings.
Especially influential for Hoffenheim
in the second-half of the season,
Gnabry played a key role in the south-
westerners’ excellent third-place finish in
the Bundesliga, a classification worthy of
the club’s first-ever Champions League
ticket. For a period, the Hoffenheimer
board thought that they might be able
to persuade Bayern to extend the loan
deal but, somewhat inevitably, a big fat
“nein” was the response. At least he had
bequeathed a tangible legacy.
Prior to definitively joining Bayern at
the start of last season, Gnabry was the
archetypal injury-prone professional. At
Arsenal, Bremen and Hoffenheim he
was the poster boy for knocks which
could not be run off, for all varieties of
muscular and articulation. Name any part
of the body and he used to be a martyr
to it: chronic knee trouble, a trapped
nerve in his back, thigh strains, a
damaged groin...
Without the malfunctioning knee he
suffered at Arsenal he might have been
a world champion with Germany inBIOGRAPHY
Influential...
at HoffenheimAdvice...with
Julian Nagelsmann“You can only come up to scratch on
a matchday if you’ve gone all out in
training in the preceding day”
Julian NagelsmannImpressive...at
Werder Bremen