Monday, 15th February 2010

Arsenal new-boy Thomas Vermaelen has made quite an impact in his first season in the Premier League, becoming a mainstay in The Gunners’ backline almost immediately after his transfer from Ajax. The tough tackling defender has not enjoyed much success on the international level however, and he is desperate to halt Belgium’s run of four major tournaments missed. Having already failed to qualify for this summer’s World Cup, the 24-year-old switches his attention to 2012 European Championship qualification, where his country has been grouped with the likes of Germany and Turkey.

"We have a talented squad as well, though, so we should be confident – and at some stage if we want to get out of that lower seeding we’ll have to win against the bigger teams," Vermaelen said to his club’s official website. "I think we can do that because we are now a little bit older and some of our players are playing at a higher level now. For two or three years people have been saying our squad is talented, but the results haven’t been there – but now I think we can achieve something.”

Vermaelen is part of group of talented Belgian players including the likes of Everton’s Marouane Fellaini and Standard Liege’s Steven Defour.

 

 

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