Footie Central | Football Blog Blogging the football world
Arsenal defender Pablo Mari is set to spend the rest of the season on loan with Udinese.
The move has been agreed, but has not yet been officially announced, because the Gunners are expecting a backlash from some of their rivals, and also some media pundits with vested interests and ties to certain broadcasters.
It follows the decision of the Premier League to allow their request for the weekend’s North London derby to be postponed because the Gunners argued that, due to injuries, Covid and AFCON absentees, they did not have enough fit layers.
Critics argued that, if that were the case, they should not have allowed both Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Flo Balogun to leave on loan this month, and the Mari decision will provide more ammunition with which to attack the club.
The 28-yesar old Spanish defender has been starved of game time under Mikel Arteta this season and is very much surplus to requirements at the Emirates.
Andy is an exiled English football fan living in Cyprus. He loves all sports but football is his abiding passion, and he still has dreams every now and then about scoring the winning goal in a Wembley Cup Final, even though his playing days are long gone. He follows most major leagues, across Europe at least, and has a favoured team in each. When he’s not watching, listening, reading or downloading podcasts about football, he spend his time worrying about his beloved Arsenal.