Have Arsenal finally found their new Thierry Henry?

Arsenal’s newest sensation Eddie Nketiah burst into the spotlight when the Gunners came from behind to knock Norwich out of the Caraboa Cup last month, and it seems that the 18 year-old has the world at his feet. He has celebrated his breakthrough in style and has continued his exploits whilst playing for the England U19 side in this week’s World Cup Qualifying rounds.

He managed to score 4 goals in their opening qualifier against The Faroes, but in a harder second game against Iceland Eddie scored yet another dramatic winner in the closing minutes to make it 2-1 and secure a place for his country in the next Elite Round of Qualifying.

There are very few people at the Arsenal Academy that are surprised by his scoring prowess as he scored 24 goals as a 16 year-old for the club, and followed it up again last season by scoring another 24, with 12 of those coming after he was promoted to the U23 side.

Even Thierry Henry famously said about Nketiah after his scintillating display against Norwich: “I worked with him when I was with the under-18s and I was delighted to see him grab two goals — delighted but not surprised.

“He is a great kid and was a pleasure to work with. He was always on time, listened hard and was a good worker, willing to learn and improve.”

Nketiah himself admitted that he would love to emulate his one-time hero. He told Arsenal Player: “[I grew up watching] Thierry, Dennis Bergkamp, Ian Wright – they were all great strikers and attacking players and I watched them a lot, especially Thierry.

“When he was working with us I used to work with him quite a bit on and off the field, so I’m just trying to emulate even a little bit of what they can do, that would a dream come true for me.”

He certainly seems to be living up to the hype so far, and with Arsene Wenger planning to give him a new pay rise with a new extended contract, could the youngster finally become Arsenal’s new Thierry?

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19 Comments

  1. Every argentine is Maradona. every arsenal player is Henry.
    it is impossible to judge new players without comparing with them

  2. I’m happy with Lacazette up-front.

    What we desperately need is a new Patrick Viera, or at least a new Santi Cazorla.

    A new David Seaman, Tony Adams, Martin Keown, and Lee Dixon wouldn’t hurt either!

  3. I hate the way it’s always years we have to wait after they land on our radar. It shows how desperate we are to have to keep looking for some shining light out of nowhere. All we can do is hope that he becomes one of the few who’re years ahead of their time. CDM, you’d think we’d have some tall French youngsters in the academy seeing as Arsene’s French. I don’t think he’s as liked over in France as much as he used to be. They all had AFC as their adopted second team, had.

  4. I see a bright,future,with such up coming players,he is likely to steps of Iwob and Rob holding big ups

  5. Actually, Eddie is more of a new Ian Wright, and let’s hope he gets a place on the bench and a regular run asap.
    We are also short of a midfield dynamo plus a spare.

  6. wenger has lost his nerve,everton played rooney at 16 and he smashed us to pieces,we need a manager who has the guts to unleash these young gooners asap

    1. Rooney smashed us to pieces? You sure have a way with words, albeit fallacious.

      So, who played Anelka, Djorou, Szczesny, Theo, Jack and Cesc, all at U-18s? Cesc played CL for Arsenal at 16. Jack was 17 when he bossed Barcelona in midfield….

  7. NKatia is Sanogoo replacement
    Akpom perez replacement
    Nelson Campbell replacement

    We need to replace
    Oxlade
    Walcott
    Sanchez Ozil giroud ? In our attack

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