At 28 he should be in his peak years getting regular minutes. Which was the whole reason he moved across the Capital.
There were Gooners who felt the center back wasn’t quite up to the required level to be a regular for a club our size, especially once we had realistic ambitions to challenge Man City.
Yet to go from starting in Europe to not getting a second of league action with Crystal Palace is some fall from grace.
At his very best, he played in two winning FA Cup Finals where he was outstanding in both.
We have lifted 14 of those trophies in our history. He will always be able to say he contributed to two of them, no one can take that away from him.
Yet he can’t even make the Eagles bench when they are selecting two keepers and youth players just to make up the numbers.
Mr. Wenger once boasted to the media how Holding only cost him 1 million. Yet before his prime, Holding can’t even get picked as a sub when managers can pick up to 9 options.
As some have observed Oliver Glasner at times hasn’t been able to fill his bench so common sense would say to use Holding even if it’s to have an extra body.
To prefer to be a man short in your Matchday squad indicates he doesn’t trust the player.
While for a while the company line was there were a few injuries, his boss was brutally honest on transfer deadline day explaining that despite being fit, Holding is training away from the first team and will continue to do so with the player ‘knowing the reason’.
He’s spoken about his battle with mental health in the past, especially when his self-confidence was impacted by hair loss. Yet would your employers be supporting you by freezing you out.
Whatever the real issue is it would seem Holding does not agree with his treatment. He’s spent the international break updating his social media pages, essentially unfollowing the club and removing any evidence that he’s connected to them.
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