It is fair to say that Abou Diaby could have been the profound successor of Patrick Vieira if it was not for his injury prone career. Struck with injuries more often than not, Diaby bid a farewell to his footballing career last week.
The 32-year-old,therefore, could not achieve his full potential in his days at Arsenal, the days before and the days after. Over the course of his life at football, Diaby spent more time sustaining injuries than performing.
Abou “Patrick Vieira” Diaby
The Frenchman in his prime was viewed as a perfect replacement for Arsenal great, Patrick Vierra.
The Frenchman was scouted by Arsene Winger in 2006 who in no time signed the 20-year-old Vieira for £2 million. The best thing that Diaby brought into the squad was versatility by being able to play at 6 as a centre-back or at 8 in a more creative and attacking role or even as a 10 at centre-forward position.
The French midfielder possessed every bit of weapon required to please the manager. Needless to say that his large physique of six-foot-four helped him to tackle the opponents as easily to hold them away from the ball. Not only that, his immense knowledge and creativity made his opponents frustrated by not being able to read his game. His technical skill, an add-on to his physique helped him retain possession with accurate passes.
For all this, he was compared to Arsenal great Vieira by the legend himself. Wenger had said,
“HIS ABILITY TO WIN THE BALL BACK IS JUST LIKE VIEIRA. HE IS CAPABLE OF VERY QUICK TRANSITIONS FROM DEFENCE TO ATTACK AND HAS FANTASTIC STRENGTH BOX TO BOX, NOBODY CAN GO WITH HIM. DIABY IS A BIT MORE OFFENSIVE THAN VIEIRA BUT WHEN HE PLAYS A MORE DEFENSIVE ROLE HE IS VERY SIMILAR.”
Career Punctuated with Injuries
Produced and manufactured in the youth academy of Red Star Paris and Pari-Saint German, Diaby grabbed immense attention with his work.
However, the giant began his first team career with Auxerre after moving from PSG. Not only that, Abou Diaby’s course of getting injured also began in his days at Auxerre.
Talking to the media his then Manager said, “ABOU WAS ONE OF THE PLAYERS I USED AT THE START OF THE SEASON AND THEN HE HAD TO STOP BECAUSE OF REPETITIVE INJURIES. MAYBE HE WAS ATTRACTED BY ENGLAND AND THE MONEY THERE. THIS PROBABLY DID NOT FORCE HIM TO MAKE ALL THE NECESSARY EFFORTS TO COME BACK TO HIS BEST LEVEL WITH US.”
Later, in his days at Arsenal, the midfielder got injured in the first year itself playing against Sunderland via a tackle from Dan Smith, and was designated to the bench for almost 8 months, giving rise to the epidemic wave of injuries to come.
The major chunk of his injury comprised of pulls, ankle surgeries, ankle fractures, cruciate ligament injuries and, muscle strains. In order to justify and illustrate his injury laden career is by way of stat where in his 13 year long career, the midfielder was able to make only 216 appearances.
The Best while on the Pitch
Whatever odd number of games Abou Diaby had played, he kept the opposition on their tenterhooks, almost always. Consider his tenure to 2006-2015 at Arsenal which was injury laden, yet he was able to retain his spot at Emirates because of his talent, skill, physique, game knowledge and, the ability to take everyone’s breath away.
Difficult to judge the significance he proved to be in the teams he played, Diaby was surely the best that could have been.
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