Tony Pulis has insisted he cannot take all the blame for Serge Gnabry’s unsuccessful spell before Arsenal sold the winger.
Gnabry joined the Gunners as a 16-year-old and made his first-team debut for the club in 2012, but he went on to make just ten Premier League appearances in an Arsenal shirt.
He was loaned to West Brom in the summer of 2015 in the hope of gaining more first-team experience, though a camero off the bench against Chelsea was the only League game he played in as Pulis claimed Gnabry was “not at the required level” to play for the club.
Arsenal recalled the German in January and he was ultimately sold to Werder Bremen since at the end of the season. A year later he was a Bayern Munich player, impressing for club and country ever since.
Pulis has regularly been questioned about his remarks on Gnabry’s ability, but he has defended himself and pointed the finger instead at Arsene Wenger and Arsenal.
“I always get this thrown at me, but what people forget is that we had [Gnabry] on loan,” Pulis told the Undr the Cosh podcast.
“Arsenal were his mother club, and Arsene Wenger was his manager and he sold him to Werder Bremen for £7million. He had him right from 14 all the way through, I only had him for a couple of months.”
Pulis added: “He has done fantastically well now, you have to hold your hands up, but at the time he was nowhere near it. He was brought off in a reserve game.
“He has gone on to great things and done fantastically well. I remember ringing Kempy (Dave Kemp, former assistant manager to Pulis) and saying he has gone to Bayern Munich, and Kempy said it must be his twin brother, it can’t be the player we had.”
