Arsenal lost their teenage sensation, Chido Obi-Martin, to Manchester United at the start of this season, which was seen as a highly embarrassing move for the club. Fans had been raving about the youngster, who had impressed with performances that included scoring at least five goals in some games. His remarkable talent was enough to earn him a quicker route to the Gunners’ first team, something he was eager to pursue.
Obi-Martin clearly possesses special qualities and seems destined for a bright future at the top level. However, despite his obvious potential, his form was not deemed good enough for Mikel Arteta to hand him a first-team chance. Arsenal had negotiated a new deal with his entourage last term, with the intention of having him progress through the U18 and U21 levels while also training with the first team. However, Obi-Martin’s desire for a faster track to the senior squad was not aligned with the club’s plan for his development.
In an attempt to change the youngster’s mind, the club arranged for Arteta to speak with Obi-Martin. However, despite the manager’s efforts, he was unable to convince the talented forward to remain at Arsenal. This led to his eventual move to Manchester United, where he hopes to reach his potential.
A report in The Telegraph claims that Arsenal was not pleased with Arteta’s inability to persuade Obi-Martin to stay, as they felt the manager had the power to convince the young player to remain in their system and possibly break into the first team. Ultimately, though, it is difficult to hold onto a player who is determined to leave, and it appears that Obi-Martin’s desire for immediate first-team football outweighed his loyalty to the club.
While Arsenal may be disappointed by the loss of such a promising talent, they must now look forward and focus on their current squad. As for Obi-Martin, we wish him all the best in his development at Manchester United, and hope he can fulfil his potential at Old Trafford.
ADMIN COMMENT
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I understand Arsenal offered the teenager 15k per week whereas Man Utd doubled this offer.In these circumstances, the fact that he left Arsenal is not surprising.
That’s what united have also done with Heaven, giving outrageous contracts. Combined with easier opportunity to break into the 1st team given how terrible they are currently no wonder his head got turned.
Given Arteta and his staff convinced Nwaneri to stay despite a record contract offer from Chelsea as interest from City, can’t be that bad right.
Those who watched Chido day in day out decided he was expendable and not only kept but are giving 90 min to two others of his age.. maybe the coaches saw something we can’t see…
I understood that Chido wanted to skip the U18’s & go straight into the U23’s but was refused, so he (or his team) decided to leave. He seemed good enough and was certainly big enough, but I’m not sure if that was Arteta’s fault..
Mr Arteta, good as he may be as a coach, is not a great man manager. He lacks the humility to stoop to a smaller person’s level, which actually requires both maturity and confidence in oneself.
As a parent, he must know when to stop talking “at children*, and allow actual experience be the teacher. Obi-Martins would still be at Arsenal had Arteta not refused to flinch on his principles, denying Obi the experiential learning he needed to develop as a person. All he needed was a promise that if he’s good enough, he would play.
Because you were in the room when Arteta spoke to him???
LOL. Yeah, sounds like a fly on the wall comment.
Personally, I think the young lad may not have the best attitude and seemed to gloat over leaving. And yes, being impatient for money is poor attitude at that age.
Remember Omari Hutchins that we lost to Chelsea due to similar attitudes ? He is not exactly setting Ipswich aflame, is he?
IN my books, if the attitude is wrong, the talent is expendable. ( bet he is kicking himself seeing younger Max Dowman could have been in, but for his age.
Onwards, Gooners. Plenty of other talents abound.
But also remember that from experience,we have learnt that most coaches are also sentimental…no matter how good or promising a player may appear,coaches’ judgement are always spiked with sentiments.If a coach has issues with something about you,some things will always not add-up about you.
If the said “sentiments” have anything to do with the players attitude then the Coach is absolutely right!
One wouldn’t want a player that’s going to disrupt the established code of conduct and/or system of running the Club/Team!
Pls don’t judge what you don’t know,as far as am concerned,money play parts in all this deals,he want big money too.
No , Obi left Arsenal because of money , impatience and parents greed . When Saka was at his level , he was offered £10K per week , he accepted the offer , Obi wanted N30K per week . Arsenal could not pay that £30K for academic player not to lay bad precedent
Time would tell if Obi’s rejection of Arsenal offer and transfer to Man U was a good idea . If Man U rebuild net season , he might not have first team playing time hence go on loan . Obi is not a finish product
I will not want to point fingers , Obi is my brother and the coach also is my friend however this business and both side must considered and compromise .
For me Obi should have look the likes of Saka and others because you can’t just jump in the senior team there re processes befor you get ,on the other side either you norn I was there to know how far the coach convinced him and they didn’t make it public foe us to see or know the really came int play. Finance and others too have their way too.
Is he playing senior level now with depleted Man utd no and why these are things we must jupb in to conclusions..
He isn’t considered in to senior team with Man utd as we speak so lets not blame either side . We wished him the best in Man utd.
Gunners coach too mut give some kind of a second thought managing young boys from their promise players
Good luck Gunners .
I think a few people have lost track of the fact that Obi-Martin was only at Arsenal for 2 years. Yes, he might turn out to be a great player. However, there does appear to be a thread of “self-interest” in the actions of him and his “entourage”.
Time will tell whether he gets to play in the Man U first team long term.
Arteta played Eddie as Wenger did now with Palace and scoring for fun NOT lol,biereth is the big loss never given a chance or Chido for that matter why Jesus & Eddie very foolish but then to sell Biereth for just 4 million plus add ons is gross misconduct by club
I did a quick check and Biereth has played a grand total of 7 games for Monaco this season. He has score 7 goals (including 2 hat tricks) for them but he is hardly a starter.
As with Obi-Martin, we do not know what was said (or not said) in the lead-up to his leaving. All we can do is wish him all the best and to continue to support Arsenal.
Don’t you love the term ‘Source’, he went for the money, nothing about Arsenal being disappointed with Arteta, what complete rubbish, it happens all the time in football
Utd have a history of paying big salaries. It’s incredible that with all the problems they have with overpaid senior players – Casemiro springs to mind – that Utd are happy to over pay youngsters as well. Good luck to them. They still have to prove themselves on the big stage and may get left behind if Amorim gets a large transfer kitty.
Well Obi could be in a relegation fight soon, but good luck to him😊.
I think Obi has over estimated his own abilities and it will truly show soon enough.
You have reported ‘half’ of the story. It was not only about the player but his entourage. It is believed that his team was eager to cash out on him. They demanded for 30k pee week for him which would have broken the schoolboy wage structure at Arsenal and you can imagine the multiplier effect on the academy. The club usually pays the schoolboys 10k per week and 15k for exceptional talents as their focus at this point should not be money but career progress. His team obviously thought otherwise.
As bad as his leaving might be, I think it was best for the club to have let him go as there is absolutely no guarantee that he would be able to perform up to the same level at the senior cadre.
It was absolutely embarrassing for the manager not to fast track the teenager in to first team
It doesn’t make sense for the manager to want to buy 100m striker when he can use the talent in the academy
People can’t use the excuse of “He was guaranteed first team appearances at United” when Man Utd can’t even guarantee that their first team coach won’t get sacked.
It’s simple, Chido went for the cash, plain and simple. Plus, every young player since SAF left United has regressed while still playing for Man Utd. CR7 himself was astonished at how atrocious the training facilities and coaching was at Carrington, and its shows with how every single player at United has regressed but improve when they leave
I was thinking the same thing. The thing is with media and content creators is that writing/creating negative content about Arsenal is perfect for engagement since Arsenal is quite unique in that they have a huge online fan base, they are a historically big team in EPL that has hasn’t won any major honors for years and are now challenging. It’s perfect for engagement, I’d do the same if I were in media. Think about it, what engagement are you getting from Liverpool, Chelsea, City etc?
I think making a hasty decision is never good,
Obi made a stupid move of considering money instead of long life talent development….. He can now have a look at the likes of skelly and nwaneri breaking into the first time and developing their carrier when he still bench warm at Manchester united
I think hindsight will be telling in this case.
If the kid goes on to be a star well, then people will attack Arteta and our board for not fast-tracking him and not paying the money.
If the kid goes on to be an average player or doesn’t make the grade well then we handled things correctly by not giving in to his demands
As for right now, I think almost everyone on here is correct with what they say
I have a good friend who is involved at Man Utd youth and he says we sold them a problem player. No doubt to his talent but apparently his attitude is causing a few issues already. If you don’t fit the Arsenal mould then best to cut loose although would have loved a nice feeling for him!
Fee for him!