Dutch Ditch Daniel Arzani: “It’s clear that he doesn’t meet our expectations” | OneFootball

The Socceroos star Daniel Arzani may be regretting signing for Manchester City after the last World Cup in Russia – a club he is highly unlikely ever to play for. The 21 year old Australian was immediately loaned out to Celtic and had to wait around three months before making his debut as Celtic steamrolled Dundee up at Dens Park at the end of October 2018.

A few flashes of real promise was as as good as it got because Arzani appeared to catch his studs in the turf and suffered a season ending injury. The player eventually got himself fit but it took until January 2020 when Celtic played Partick Thistle at Firhill in the Scottish Cup for him to get his second appearance for the Hoops, coming on in the latter stages and if memory serves me correctly, failing to touch the ball.

In August 2020 he moved from Celtic to try his luck on loan at Utrecht in the Netherlands but he has failed to make a single appearance for the Dutch side and now the Utrecht manager Rene Hake has called time on Arzani’s time at the club, describing the winger as “disappointing” – to the annoyance of the Australian National side’s Assistant manager.

“It’s clear that he doesn’t meet our expectations. I think as a player of FC Utrecht you need to show something to make me think ‘this is a player I can build and rely on,” Hake told the media, as reported by Scottish Sun.

“But if he brings too little, you can make the choice to leave him out of the squad and that’s what I have done. Yes, he’s been disappointing so far. I expected more of him.”

The Socceroos Assistant Manager Rene Meulensteen wasn’t happy about this in the slightest and accused Hake of not giving the former Celtic loan star “a dog’s chance”: “He hasn’t been given a dog’s chance under Hake. It looks like Daniel isn’t the flavour of the month for the current manager and if coaches don’t like the look of you then it becomes very difficult and that’s the situation Daniel finds himself in.

“We all know he’s a very talented boy and a fantastic player. But he also needs a certain way of management to get the best out of him.

“When he’s been with Socceroos, we’ve seen how gifted he is and he can be a really good player for us. He just needs to make sure his agent and his club Manchester City find a solution quickly. If a club doesn’t want you then there’s no point in staying.”

The old fashioned way of a young player signing for a club and making an impact before making a big money move to a English Premier League side is perhaps a better route for a player like Daniel Arzani whose European adventure has been nothing but a frustrating nightmare.