A loan deal was struck today with Arsenal to bring striker Yaya Sanogo to Palace for the remainder of the season. The forward had been linked with moves to Bordeaux and Hull but Palace have secured his signature, with staying in the Premier League and London being seemingly important to the development of the player in Arsene Wenger’s view.
It has been widely observed that Palace need to reinforce attacking options and to have different types of forwards available – Sanogo is a tall, strong presence up front and has decent pace for his size. Where the question marks remain are in his ability to put the ball in the net – a fact acknowledged by the player in naming his twitter and facebook accounts as “yayasanogoal.“
Sanogo began his career as a youth prospect at Auxerre. At U14 level he was netting at an incredible 1.75 goals a game and at U16 level averaged a goal a game, whilst also contributing heavily in terms of assists. Despite interest from other clubs, namely Arsenal and Spurs, Sanogo signed professional terms with Auxerre in 2009. He began his first professional season in the U18’s but was soon moved to the reserve squad, who play in the French 4th tier, where he began finding the net, including a hattrick to make him the side’s top scorer at just 16 years of age. As the season drew to a close he began to get first team recognition – making his cup debut days before turning 17 and his league debut not long after.
The following season saw Sanogo begin in the reserve squad once more, but in September of 2010, he suffered a broken leg, which kept him out for the remainder of the campaign. On his return at the start of the following season he soon found his way into the first team setup at Auxerre and began playing and scoring with decent regularity. It was this form that enabled him to secure a long term contract at Arsenal after the end of his professional deal with Auxerre – and he headed to London for the start of the 2013/2014 season.
In his first season at Arsenal, Sanogo played sporadically – making his debut against Fulham as a late sub and also making appearances against the likes of Liverpool and Bayern Munich in spite of being disrupted by a back injury. Sanago played every minute of the FA Cup semi-final against Wigan and made a substitute appearance against Hull as Arsenal won the FA Cup, although he finished the season without scoring an Arsenal goal.
2014/2015 started with a lot of promise as Sanogo scored an incredible 4 goals against Benfica in the Emirates Cup – and he started the Community Shield win against Man City as the main striker. The return of Olivier Giroud meant that Sanogo’s chances were limited for game time but he finally broke his Arsenal duck when he scored against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League after 73 seconds. It had taken 19 appearances over 18 months, but the relief was palpable.
Not long after scoring, it was made clear by Arsene Wenger that he wanted Sanogo to get out on loan for some game time – preferably in the Premier League. For much of the season, Palace have been crying out for a physical presence at the top of the pitch. The lack of height and relative strength from the likes of Gayle and Campbell have often seen the team fail to hold the ball in the final third. That said, the big question comes as to whether Sanogo is the man to take the chances that Palace do create. His form for Arsenal has shown that he can hold up play and intelligently bring others into a game, but a solitary strike will rightly raise questions from the Palace support as to whether he is the answer.
I have no doubt whatsoever though that Sanogo will walk into a supportive and progressive environment and that if he does make a good impression early on, he will love the support from the stands. Beyond that, who knows what the future holds for him, but he has a chance now to make a huge contribution to Crystal Palace FC. Best of luck and welcome to CPFC Yaya!
