Arsenal may have a new arrival before the end of the season - Nicklas Bendtner?

It was a big shock in the summer when Juventus decided to take on Arsenal striker Nicklas Bendtner for the season. It was made abundantly clear by everyone that the Dane was not the Old Lady’s first choice to cover their striking positions but after they failed to bring in the likes of Fernando Llorente and Stevan Jovetic the Bianconeri decided to gamble on the forward; perhaps based on his Euro 2012 performances.

It has not entirely gone to plan for Juve or Bendtner since. First they declared him unfit and overweight which saw him undertake a two month nutrition and fitness regime and since then he has played just nine games and not scored a single goal in Turin. As if things couldn’t get any worse the 25-year-old then picked up a severe thigh injury against Cagliari in December from which he is still recuperating.

So he obviously decided to take the time to head back to his hometown of Copenhagen; maybe meet some old friends for a few drinks, socialise, grab some sushi, have a laugh. You know, let his hair down a bit.

Then drive down the wrong side of the road drunk.

Ignoring the obviously extremely dangerous and irresponsible nature of the act you simply have to smack your head in disbelief at the behaviour of a player who already has a pretty poor reputation off the pitch.

Now Danish media sources believe he may be heading back to Arsenal as Juventus look all set to cancel his loan deal after not only being arrested for drunk-driving; but failing to inform his Italian club. The Juventus hierarchy had to find out about the incident via the Italian media which has left them red-faced as they pursue domestic and European glory over the coming weeks.

Bendtner has since apologised for the incident:

dear friendsi was booked for a mild case of drinkdriving last nightit was a quite nite but i am very very sorryto all my friends and fans

— Nicklas Bendtner (@bendtnerb52) March 3, 2013

Well at least it was only a ‘mild case of drink driving.’ Whatever that means!

image: © Ronnie Macdonald