Arsène Wenger believes the raw talent of Nicklas Bendtner may
need further time to develop.
The Arsenal manager sent his 19-year-old striker out on loan to
Birmingham City last season to learn his trade. He came back with
valuable experience and a burgeoning reputation.
As a result, Wenger has brought Bendtner into his first-team squad
for the coming season. He believes the tall, powerful Dane will
compliment his other forwards Robin van Persie, Eduardo and
Emmanuel Adebayor - however the Frenchman knows both player and
manager may have to be patient.
At the moment he is a raw talent, said Wenger. Nicklas is not
completely ready to start in the Premiership and I wanted to give
him as many games as I could in pre-season to help him understand
what is needed.
He is an intelligent and open-minded boy. We can have a frank
discussion on what he has to do and he listens then tries to do
it.
He is very, very confident too. When you see a guy like that take
the ball and take a penalty [against PSG] in his first game. That
means he does not lack confidence.
There was a lot of interest in him around Europe but we wanted to
keep him and extended his contract.
Certainly I believe the talent is in there. He is super quick,
very tall with good technique and he is intelligent. He just needs
to play at a higher pace now.
