Oleksandr Zinchenko arrived with Gabriel Jesus from Manchester City with the target of raising the standards at the Emirates Stadium. Three years later, both players are surplus to requirements.
The Brazilian is still absent with an ACL injury, and Viktor Gyökeres has got the nod as the number nine for the Gunners. On the other hand, the Ukrainian is fit but is no longer integral for Arsenal.
He has sat down to pour out his emotions about what he feels has been the hardest year of his career.
‘It can take the stuffing out of you’
Zinchenko helped evolve the side in his first season in North London. He is a midfielder by trade and inverted from left back in ways that were unfamiliar for the old first-choice option, Kieran Tierney.
However, even in that campaign, he only played 2200 Premier League minutes, suffering from a series of injuries. Over time, calf complaints have cut his opportunities, and he needed a solution.
“He did a couple of sessions with me and came up with a gym regime that really sorted it out.”
That was not the only drawback about the 28-year-old. He might have been a revelation as a passing presence in the centre of the park, but defensive lapses and physical frailty made him a weak point.
Jakub Kiwior came in for him in the second half of the 2023/24 season, spelling the start of the end for the Ukrainian. **Riccardo Calafiori**came in last summer as the most expensive summer signing from **Bologna**for £33 million, then Myles Lewis-Skelly stepped up to grab hold of the position.
“I was basically out of the starting eleven altogether, bar a few isolated matches. In pure personal terms, it was easily the worst season I ever experienced as a professional.”
Zinchenko only earned 500 Premier League minutes last year. Like Tierney, he became a bit part in the plans, mainly picking up time in the midfield at the end of the season while Mikel Arteta tried to reserve the strength of his best starting eleven to fight for the Champions League in midweek.
To have fallen out of favour completely is a reality that has been hard to accept for the 28-year-old.
“A player who doesn’t play is nothing. It’s one thing when your body lets you down. That can happen.
“But going from one of the established players of the side to unused sub is harder to deal with. The sense of rejection you feel if your manager no longer believes in you can take the stuffing out of you.”
He has a year left on his deal with the Gunners, but with a weekly salary of £150,000, he is not the most attractive asset to buy on the market. **Fenerbahce**are circling for his services, but negotiating a loan would be useless as a route to recoup money unless he decides to extend his contract past 2026.
No matter what happens, the Ukrainian is lucky he does not have to worry about a secure lifestyle.
“Sitting on the bench in the Premier League for a very generous wage packet is obviously still a privilege, the kind of problem that billions of people on this planet would swap their much tougher lives for in a heartbeat. Trust me, as a Ukrainian, I’m aware of that. Every single minute.”
However, he seems to be a man who is crying out for playing time to get back to his best as a person.
“But every footballer started because they love to play. A big part of your life is missing without it. Imagine this little boy who dedicated his existence to being good at one thing and then finds at 28 that he’s essentially no longer needed; there are others who can do the job for him. It’s not a nice feeling.”