Courtesy of Flick user Wha’ppen

Lille forward Salomon Kalou has revealed to sporting paper L’equipe that he rejected a loan move to Arsenal FC in January. His reasoning for rejecting the move was his desire to stay at Lille and try to help the club finish third in Ligue 1 and guarantee them a place in the qualifying rounds of the Champions League.

What Chelsea fans think, and hope as well, is that Salomon Kalou turned down the move because he did not want to play for a former rival club and help them in their title race. Kalou spent six seasons of his career with Chelsea FC and was deeply attached to the club after describing his first day at Cobham as “the dream moment of my life and I did not want to wake up and find that it was not real”.

Salomon Kalou on the possible move to Arsenal:

“A possible departure? Yes, to Arsenal, it could have been done as a last-minute loan. But I want to finish third, prepare for the World Cup and go to the Stade de France to compete in the final of the Coupe de France.”

A more pragmatic line of thinking is that Kalou simply did not want to shake things up in a World Cup year. He is Lille’s leading scorer this season and is an automatic choice in the starting eleven. If he moved to Arsenal he would have had to adapt to playing with new teammates and a new style of football even if he is very familiar with London as a city. He would still likely have been a first choice player for Arsene Wenger, especially with the injury to Theo Walcott, but there were no guarantees he would be a good fit at Arsenal.

Regardless of the reasoning behind his rejection of the move, it is clear that he would have helped the Gunners in their title challenge. Salomon Kalou is a versatile player that can play in the center of midfield, as a winger, or even as a center forward. Maybe Chelsea fans should send their former super sub a greeting card or two to thank him for not heading to the red side of London this January.

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