Do Arsenal even want Vela?

There is no doubt that he has talent and all of us Arsenal fans have hoped he would shine, but the Mexican youngster, who has failed to cement a place in Arsene Wenger's side, will remain at the Emirates this year after spending the second part of last season on loan with West Brom. He failed to impress there as well, playing in a handful of games, so I ask does Arsenal want or need him?


This week Vela’s agent has stated that he will stay and that Arsenal want him:
"I have had eight conversations with Arsenal, the most recent was last Friday, and Carlos is an Arsenal player, he will stay at Arsenal and is not for sale”.

"Arsene Wenger is an extremely demanding coach, he sent him on loan for six months to West Brom not with the results he wanted, but, nevertheless, everything is going very well."

I have a feeling that it is not a fact that Arsenal want Vela (or would make much of a fight to keep him), but no offers have come in. I recently received a tweet on twitter from a reader who clearly is a Vela fan to a link of a post he made (you can read it here if you like), but there were some good points, on his ability and reminding us what he can do. But I really don’t think he has proved himself and I wouldn’t mind if he left Arsenal.

To be fair Vela was hard done by at West Brom and with the form of Peter Odemwingie he did not get the playing time he deserved. In the games he did play I was not disappointed with what I saw, but we did not get to see enough of him.

What Vela lacks is that strength to win a 50/50 balls, a smaller player like Hernandez, who was originally not as highly rated as Vela, is able to win those balls and has proved himself. Vela seems to wait for the ball and doesn’t want to fight for it, passion is needed and I can’t see any.

In this coming season we are likely to see Bendtner leave, but also a striker coming in, is there even space for Vela. With our current strikers and prospects I am not so sure. Vela would have to step up his game, and don’t get me wrong any Gooner would love to see that, but it’s just a question will it be a case of too little too late.