Serge Gnabry: From Arsenal and West Brom flop to Bayern Munich's Champions League star – Sky Sports, Skysports.com

    

                            

                

                     

                    

                Serge Gnabry has gone from surplus to requirements at Arsenal and West Brom to a superstar at Bayern Munich

            

Arsenal’s ‘great hope’

Gnabry joined Arsenal as a 16 – year -old from hometown club VfB Stuttgart in 2011 for a fee in the region of £ 100, 000.

He was a player Arsene Wenger always had high hopes for. “Serge Gnabry is a great hope for the future. I rate him highly. If he continues his development, I think he could play in the first team this season,” the Frenchman said after signing the German forward back in 2011.

“At the moment, he needs to work and ensure he remains fit.”

That was always a probl em for Gnabry at Arsenal.

He burst onto the scene in just his second year in north London, making his first-team debut at 17 in September 2012, replacing Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain for the final 18 minutes of the Gunners’ League Cup tie with Coventry.

A month later he became Arsenal’s second-youngest Premier League player behind Jack Wilshere and just four days later he made his Champions League debut for the Gunners , but his real breakthrough came in the following season as he played 14 times for the club in all competitions before a knee injury sustained against Bayern Munich cut his season short.

The injury also ruled him out of the entire 2014 / 15 campaign, but Wenger refused to give up on his “great hope”.

‘Not at the level for West Brom’

“We signed Serge Gnabry because I believe that he will be a great player. He’s nearly there now, and competes for a regular place in the team in the Premier League. He’s a powerful offensive player and I believe that he will be a great player for Arsenal Football Club. “

Despite the injury set-back, Wenger still believed in Gnabry, who signed a new long-term contract with the club in October 2013.

He returned to full fitness for the start of the 2015 / 16 season and Arsenal sent him out on loan to West Brom in a bid to get him some more first-team experience.

” I’m very delighted by the move, “Gnabry said on his arrival at the Hawthorns. “We’re delighted to add Serge to our options,” said Baggies boss Tony Pulis. “He is a top player and he will bring us quality in certain areas of the pitch.”

It looked like a good move for all parties , but what transpired was anything but.

Gnabry’s spell at the Hawthorns consisted of just 12 minutes of Premier League football under Pulis, who sent the German winger back to Arsenal after just six months.

“Serge has come here to play games but he just hasn’t been for me, at the moment, at that level to play the games, “Pulis told theExpress and Starnewspaper in October 2015.

“He’s come from academy football and not played much league football – does academy football really prepare players for league football? And we’re talking about Premier League football here. As a manager you pick a team that’s going to win a game of football. You pick your best team – you don’t leave people out because you don’t like them, because of this, that and the other. “

Three months later and Gnabry was back at Arsenal.

Move to Werder Bremen

Gnabry returned to Arsenal in the summer of 2016 with an Olympic silver medal after becoming the tournament’s joint-top scorer at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

The Gunners got straight to work on a new deal for the youngster with Wenger urging him to stay at the Emirates Stadium, but Gnabry needed a change.

“We didn’t want to get rid of Gnabry, we wanted to keep him, “Wenger said. “But he was in the last year of his contract. We were close to extending his contract but finally he changed his mind and went to Werder Bremen. But I think we taught him a lot and I think if you ask him he would agree with that. “

Gnabry moved back to Germany with Werder Bremen and it proved to be the right decision.

As a regular starter, Gnabry started to fulfil the promise Wenger had talke d about for so long. He scored 11 goals in 27 league games for Alexander Nouri’s side, helping them to an eighth-place finish in the Bundesliga.

His form helped earn him a Germany call-up from Joachim Low and he scored a hat-trick on his senior international debut against San Marino.

But it wasn’t just Germany that came calling. With interest from some of Germany’s top clubs building, Gnabry activated a clause in his contract which allowed him to leave Werder Bremen less than 12 months after he joined

Bayern Munich wasted no time in securing his signature for just € 8m, tying him down to a three-year deal at the Allianz Arena.

(Fit and firing at Bayern)

Gnabry’s career at Bayern did not start straight away, with the forward immediately sent out on a season-long loan to Hoffenheim to gain more first -team experience.

But unlike his time at West Brom, this loan spell was a huge success. He made 22 league appearances in the 2017 / 18 campaign, scoring 10 goals as Hoffenheim secured Champions League football for the first time in the club’s history with a third-place finish.

He returned to Bayern in the summer of 2018 ready to deliver on the biggest stage.

“I wouldn’t be sat here if I wasn’t ready for the challenge,” Gnabry said speaking alongside the then-new head coach Niko Kovac at his first press conference as a Bayern player. “I think the best way to see what I can do is just by watching me. I really enjoyed the second half of the season with Hoffenheim because I played as much as possible. Now I’m ready to bring that feeling to Munich. “

And how right he was.

Gnabry’s career has flourished ever since. In his first season at the Allianz Arena he won his first Bundesliga title as Bayern finished two points above Borussia Dortmund.