Arsene Wenger used to hate recovering ‘broken down’ stars after internationals so will love the Arsenal withdrawals. But Manchester United lead the way. Wenger once compared international managers selecting his Arsenal players to represent their countries as “like taking the car from his garage without even asking permission.
“They will then use the car for 10 days and abandon it in a field without any petrol left in the tank,” he added. “We then have to recover it, but it is broken down. Then a month later they will come to take your car again, and for good measure you’re expected to be nice about it.
” Earlier this season, and despite losing Martin Odegaard to injury in September because of some Norway silliness , Mikel Arteta was slightly more measured in his assessment of those infernal breaks. “First of all the player has to be healthy to go to their national teams but all of them, when I spoke to them, want to be part of that and it’s normal,” he said. “It’s a huge privilege to represent your country.
They all want to be involved, they all have their role, they don’t want to lose it and we have to understand that as well.” With that said, Arsenal have already had a couple of pull-outs in October because dark arts, while the honest folk at Manchester City have packed their players off with a smile. Manchester United – three players Alejandro Garnacho Confirming his withdrawal from Argentina’s upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Venezuel.