Santi Cazorla wants to “play some part” this season

I like good news. I like happy things. Life is too full of the opposite of both, and when a nice bit of good news pops up, I like to highlight it as much as possible, because good things are good. And when I saw this story this morning, it made me happy. We all know the travails and hard work Santi Cazorla has had to do to get the point where something like this is even a possibility, but Santi, aware that Arsene Wenger is leaving in May, had this to say:

The objective is to play some part with the team before the season ends, but we have to take things carefully.

Which is exciting! I mean, I am under no illusions - Santi will be 34 this season, hasn’t played in almost two full seasons, and I have very little reason to believe that a new manager next season will want to build Arsenal’s future around any player with that kind of profile, beloved or not. But Santi is great, and I really want him to have one final moment in the sun before he, Wenger, and the club all go their separate ways.

There’s no downside to it this season from Arsenal’s perspective, either - there’s nothing left to play for, and having Santi play a game isn’t going to crowd a promising kid out of the lineup. Plus, he positive PR that would come from seeing Santi take the pitch one final time would go a long way towards making people forget how little there is to play for right now, and would send everyone into the summer feeling like a chapter was closed positively.

I want nothing but good things to happen to and for Santi Cazorla, and if he can play even one more half before calling time on his career, that’s a huge win in my book. I hope he can get there.