Quincy Owusu-Abeyie shows why Wenger was right to off load him

By 1970’s Gooner

Quincy Owusu-Abeyie was one of those exciting young guns that Arsene Wenger brought to Arsenal back in 2002 when he was released from Ajax at the age of 16 because of attitude problems.

He scored his first goal for the first team in the league Cup in 2004 against Everton, a game in which he also made two assists. He produced a similarly impressive performance against Reading the following year.

However, he failed to break through to regular first-team selection and it was thought that he had disciplinary problems at Arsenal.

He was transferred to Russian club Spartak Moscow for an undisclosed fee in 2006 but he joined Spanish side Celta de Vigo on loan for the 2007–08 season and in the last window he joined Birmingham City on loan.

However his attitude problems continued to persist.

Two weeks ago he got on the wrong end of his Birmingham City boss Alex McLeish after his bad reaction to his substitution in a league game against Doncaster.

The Black Stars forward who has won praise from McLeish in the past for his early performances went straight to the dressing room after he was substituted 39 minutes into the game.

"I explained to him that you don't go to the dressing room, you support the team from the dug-out when you come off," McLeish said.

“I don't want to take a gifted player and say he has to defend for us but Wayne Rooney does it and the top players in the England team did it in the week. It is part of the modern game at the top level.

"We certainly give the players the fitness to do it, it is just the understanding he needs”

Although Quincy was apologetic to McLeish and his team mates his attitude problems emerged again when he was recently called up to play for Ghana.

The national coach, Milovan Rajevac, has warned Quincy that he faces a long spell on the sidelines if he does not improve his attitude towards the national team.

He has already excluded Quincy from the 22-man squad for next week's crucial World Cup qualifier against Lesotho in Sekondi.

It appears that the problem was that the 21-year-old, although released by Birmingham well ahead of last month's qualifier against Libya, failed to join his colleagues in the national team until the last minute.

He claimed that he missed two scheduled flights to Tripoli for the game!

"Quincy has not been dropped from the Black Stars forever but he must think about why he has been dropped as guidance for the future.

Players must show that they are ready to die for the national team and his attitude before the Libya game was not good enough.

He plays in United Kingdom along with Essien, Laryea Kingston and John Paintsil and they all managed to arrive in time but he opted to tell stories” Rajevac said.

Quincy had a superb showing for Holland at the Fifa World Youth Championship 2005 but opted to play for Ghana, the country of his parents in January of this year.