At 31 years of age and mostly unused by Unai Emery at Arsenal, it made sense for Henrikh Mkhitaryan to look for an alternative club ahead of the 2019/20 season.
The Armenia international spent most of the summer searching, but on September 2nd, AS Roma stretched out their arm and the attacking midfielder clung on for dear life, as he moved to Italy for what was meant to be a campaign to prove everyone wrong and restart his dwindling career.
Unfortunately, he grabbed on a bit too hard because less than a month in, Mkhitaryan injured himself, tearing an abductor muscle that kept him out of action for nearly two months.
He came back in early December, made five league appearances, scored twice and then went down once again, this time with a thigh muscle strain.
He’s yet to return (but could do so soon), and yet there’s a feeling this just hasn’t gone well enough for all involved.
Il Messaggero on Monday look at Roma’s struggles following their 4-2 loss to Sassuolo at the weekend, and a large part of the blame for their mediocre situation (currently fifth in the league) is down to recent transfers.
Mohamed Salah was replaced by Patrik Schick (now at RB Leipzig on loan), while Robin Olsen came in for Alisson.
The arrivals of Javier Pastore and Steven Nzonzi (on loan at Rennes) for Radja Nainggolan and Kevin Strootman haven’t worked out either, and Nikola Kalinić, coming in to help Edin Džeko up top, has yet to find the back of the net.
And then, we get to Arsenal’s Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who has just 14 appearances to his name in all competitions (only five of which were starts), whom Il Messaggero feel is ‘always injured’.
The veteran was meant to come in and help across the front-line, and yet when he’s needed the most (after Nicolò Zaniolo ruptured his cruciate knee ligament), they end up being physio buddies in the medical centre.
That led to Roma needing to sign yet another player to cover and attempts to bring in the likes Xherdan Shaqiri and Pedro were made, only for 21-year-old Carles Pérez to arrive on loan from Barcelona after making a grand total of 13 appearances for the La Liga champions.
A bit of a gamble when one shouldn’t have been needed, as they committed a relatively large chunk of wages and £2.7m up front to secure the Arsenal man’s services.
If things don’t turn around for both Roma and Mkhitaryan in the coming months, this move will wildly be seen as a failure, which doesn’t bode well for both the player and the Gunners when he’ll return in June with one year left on his contract.
