Those days must now feel like a distant memory for Zinchenko, for whom life in English football has soured horribly over the past few seasons. So much so that he has now left the Premier League behind, probably for good. Zinchenko’s ill-fated loan move to Nottingham Forest has been cancelled, allowing him to join Ajax on a permanent transfer instead.
It has been a dramatic fall from prominence, although Zinchenko himself is not entirely to blame. Injuries destroyed his momentum at Arsenal (repeated calf problems were a major issue), and it could be argued that he was the single biggest victim of Forest’s managerial turbulence this season.
Zinchenko leaves Forest having started just one Premier League match since their defeat by Chelsea in mid-October. That game also happened to be the final match of Ange Postecoglou’s 39-day spell in charge. From the moment Sean Dyche was subsequently appointed, it seems, Zinchenko’s days at the City Ground were numbered.
The 29-year-old’s last game for Forest came against Wrexham in the FA Cup earlier this month. It was a grim occasion for him: he was one of three players to be substituted at half-time as Dyche expressed his fury at the team’s performance. It is understood that Zinchenko was told to find a new club a few days later.
It is difficult to imagine a player less suited to Dyche’s style of play than Zinchenko, who has spent most of his Premier League career operating as a highly technical inverted left-back for teams that dominate possession. Zinchenko’s ultra-modern skill set could hardly be further removed from what Dyche usually demands from his more traditional full-backs.
The appointment of Postecoglou, by contrast, had been good news for Zinchenko. Under Postecoglou, he started five of the seven games for which he was eligible. As Forest then lurched from one manager to the next, the style changing completely, Zinchenko was effectively cast aside. It should also be said that his performances, when picked, have not met expectations.
Such an unhappy outcome for a player is always possible when a deal is rushed through on deadline day, as was the case with Zinchenko’s loan to Forest. The move was driven at short notice by Edu Gaspar, Forest’s global head of football, following the collapse of their pursuit of Atlético Madrid defender Javi Galán. Forest had also considered Leicester’s Victor Kristiansen before hastily striking a deal with Arsenal for Zinchenko.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta speaks with Oleksandr Zinchenko
At the time of Zinchenko’s arrival at Forest, tensions were running high internally. Nuno Espírito Santo, then head coach, was barely on speaking terms with Edu, as the two men clashed over transfer targets. None of this made life any easier for Zinchenko, who had also been signed by Edu during the Brazilian’s time as Arsenal’s sporting director.
One wonders whether Zinchenko will ever make his mark in the Premier League again, or whether his best seasons at City (he won four league titles at the Etihad Stadium) and Arsenal came in a sweet spot for a player of his specific attributes.
The game is becoming more aggressive and physical again, which is bad news for a lightweight schemer like Zinchenko. This season, the number of passes per game is the lowest it has been in the Premier League since 2012-13, and the amount of long passes per game is up.
Indeed, part of the reason for his fall from favour at Arsenal was that Arteta wanted to add more physicality and strength to the left-back position. Riccardo Calafiori and Piero Hincapié have been signed to play in that role, and both are formidable athletes who can run all day, win headers and play at centre-back. They are simply more defensively sturdy and physically powerful than Zinchenko.
In theory, a move to a team with Ajax’s history and philosophy should suit Zinchenko, who now has a chance to prove he can still have a major impact in Europe’s top leagues.
Will he ever come back to the Premier League? This is a player who needs the right manager and the right club, but the shifting sands of English football could make it harder than ever for him to find them.