Eddie Nketiah may just be the reason Arsenal may sell one of their strikers. by Lagos Gooner
Good day once again Arsenal family. It was a sweet victory against the Toffees on Sunday. We beat Everton in a game that got my heart skipping fast in places. Against all odds and against all predictions, Arsenal beat an Everton side that was in red hot form before coming to the Emirates. Their form was so strong that before we could even settle down to playing the ball after the referees’ whistle; they had scored a goal against Arsenal. That Everton’s early goal got me worried. I was worried because I felt we were in for a beating but Arsenal, led in attack by Nketiah, had other ideas.
In all fairness, after the Everton goal, Arsenal started piling pressure on their defence. They kept on coming at Everton and it paid dividends later on when our young, hot prospect, Nketiah, scored the equalizer with a flying kick.
Eddie’s goal reminded me of Jean Claude Van-Damme, the Hollywood action hero, who specializes in martial arts. He is so good with his legs and this made me love and still makes me love him. Nketiah scored a wonderful goal with his leg and all I could do after watching his goal, was to stand up and applaud the beautiful goal. Nketiah won my heart with his goal on Sunday, just like the way Van-Damme won my heart with his powerful kicks.
With our two first-choice strikers almost running out of their contracts, and with the club finding it difficult to make them renew at the moment, Nketiah may just benefit if either Lacazette or Aubameyang leave Arsenal at the end of this season, as this may afford him more playing opportunities at the club. Eddie can only improve his game and he will end up a deadly striker in the world of football. The boy has the eye for goal and this eye and hunger for goal will give the club reasons to allow any striker unwilling to renew his contract to leave the club.
When Eddie started the game against Everton, I said to the next man by my side that Arteta is trying to look for a way to make the club not depend on one player. With Lacazette not yet in full form, Arteta is making use of Eddie, in order to build him up to take his full chances if the club decides to sell any of their other strikers this summer. I see the club selling at least one striker this summer and I see Nketiah playing a vital role in the team, this season, and next season and beyond.
We are Arsenal and we are proud.
Sylvester Kwentua
Absolutely love eddie. I’ve been shing it for a while he is the future if the club. We have seen him start 2 premier league games now and for me he impressed in both. Both games had a element of need to win and for me in both games eddie answered the call.
In both games against Newcastle and everton we have seen eddie have great build up play and be there to poach goals as well create for his self. We have seen him hit the post 2x. I believe in games to come he will be converting those chances as he gets used to playing under a slightly higher intensity.
For me eddie is not far behind laccazettes quality and has the potential to match auba.
I believe if we are resigned to losing either auba or lacca it should be lacca and auba is one of the best strikers in the world and has another good 2 or 3 years in him. In this time eddie and learn from and develop to become choice number 1. It will also free up the LW for saka and martinelli who are equally brilliant.
As a side note I would love to see maitland niles play in CM. I dont rate guendozi and beielve we need other young options in the middle. Ceballos has done a great job also in the middle spot.
I would love to see doucoure come in to compete with xaka
Out Lacca and guendozi
In young CB, RB and CM/DMF
Not really.Nketiah and Martinelli are talented young forwards who may well go on to have great careers hopefully with Arsenal.However neither of them has had the opportunity to string together a run of games and until they do it is premature to suggest that they are already the real deal.Despite the fact that we are unlikely to make the top four, from his very positive body language I get the impression that Auba will extend his contract in which case Lacazette, may be the one to be moved on.Despite his poor goal scoring record this season he is still a very fine all round footballer and personally I hope all four are with us next season by which time we will hopefully have recruited 2/3 quality centre backs and midfielders.
While Aubameyang’s world class positioning, movement and finishing is rare to find, we can still replace Lacazette’s ball playing abilities which Aubameyang does not possess.
Nketiah, Aubameyang and Martinelli are similar in their style of play as none of them can really hold the ball up, or out-muscle the opponent, they are natural finishers or what you call poachers.
Lacazette wouldn’t have scored the goal Nketiah scored yesterday because he wont anticipate it, he won’t just be there but that same goal is the trademark goal for the aforementioned trio.
If we lose Aubameyang, we can at least hope to replace him with Martinelli and/or Nketiah but for Lacazette, no one has his skill set among all our strikers.
We can afford to lose Auba but not Lacazette, he is 31 years already and will soon be a “pensioner” like Ozil.
However, if the unthinkable happens and we lose both of them, Aubameyang can be replaced from within and then we can get Raul Jimenez or Danny Ings to replace Lacazette.
We have Tierny, Kolasinac and Saka, 3 good players we can use at the left back yet, we find ourselves wanting currently with 2 injured and the remaining, a knackered one and may force Ateta to play a back 3 or shift Xhaka to the left back position.
We need not live in a fool’s paradise thinking we have enough and can afford to let go of any. Unless we are willing to go for a better replacement, for which is a tough call.
Very good point Jo.Any news on the injury to Kolasinac who was so reckless in his attempt to win the ball when there was no apparent danger.While I like his enthusiasm he needs to calm down and think twice before he dives in.What on earth was he doing by breaking our defensive line for Everton,s first goal.. If push comes to shove Arteta could play AMN at left back on Thursday as Sak a is certainly in need of a rest.
I completely agree with the comment regarding AMN and Guendozi.
I believe that AMN has gained so much from his enforced time as a RB and it seems we forget his performances before that time.
Guendozi gives 100%, but never seems to create anything with his sideways and backward passing.
On to the topic, can we let Auba or Lacs go, because of Nketiah’s performance in two games?
Not for me, we should try and keep all our forwards – and I give you the current situation that spuds find themselves in, following the injuries to kane and son.
They have younger, inexperienced players (as I class Nketiah), but maureen won’t take chances with them.
My biggest concern/question is, however, what would be the price of getting both Auba and Lacs to sign their contracts?
We all know, with Auba, he will be able to claim a salary well in excess of £250,000 a week and with Madrid/Barca sniffing around, that would be no problem whatsoever.
I don’t think Lacs would be that far behind in his salary demands either, so what does the club do?
Just as with the Ozil reported salary, we have to decide if we really are prepared to act like a “big club” and match the top clubs with salary offers – then live with the consequences OR once again, sell off our best players because we will not compete with the them salary wise.
The CL qualification and money that we took for granted for so long, now seems to be so much more than “just a fourth place prize for AW”!!!
Sell Laca and try to keep Auba. If not, buy a good replacement and cross fingers.
Sure Nketiah and Martinelli are the future of Arsenal but alone they won’t get you champions league places any time soon.
I agree with you Ken with regard to AMN who merits an opportunity in midfield in my view.He has something which is lacking in all our other midfielders, namely real pace.Perhaps he will play on Thursday.
The young players lack stamina and decisive passes especially on attack, they either hold on to the ball too long and easily bundled off the ball.
Overally, too much back passes an area to improve on
Why worry, when what will be will be. What happens to any player in the summer is not an issue really, the issue is what we get and what we are left with. Arsenal can not afford another summer of making the wrong decisions, any decisions being made have to be countered by another to improve the squad.
I guess that if the club aren’t worried and they are not bothered about what happens to either player, the nett result will be that we lose Auba and Lacs for nothing…something that we have been promised will never happen again – so it’s obvious we have to get them to sign a new contract, or sell them in the summer, as per the new regime’s statement.
As I say, what the contracts will cost the club is anyone’s guess, but it’s coming to a head and the club have to decide what way they are going to play it… two more obscene salaries or letting players leave for nothing – over to you Stanley Kronkie, it’s your club and your money!!!
The fan base will crucify you, which ever way you choose to go, that’s for certain.
If they do leave, we then have to decide if Nketiah and Martinelli will be the answer to our front line, along with Pepe in 2021/2 season.
If they aren’t, then buying one replacement of equivalent level, the asking price will be in the £150,000,000 mark (kane’s reported valuation), along with any pro-rata salary.
My opinion is that we offer Auba and Lacs a two year extension, with a salary attractive enough to get them to stay – of course those salaries will be grotesque, obscene and will “bleed the club dry”, but if we want to be where all true Gooners want us to be, that can be the only answer – god help the players if they put a foot wrong though!!!
Meanwhile, Nketiah and Martinelli continue to learn, after all, they are really just starting out and, like Saka, need to be handled correctly…MA is the man to do it.
At Ken
Would surely love to read one of the realist respond to our current situation how much should be offered and the contract must include form. You know players on big money absolutely must maintain form.
# the realists
Jah son, that is the problem my friend, these so called “REALISTS” never actually address the problems, but just blow hot air and try to educate everyone else to their way of thinking.
If Auba and Lacs sign new contracts, their salaries (if we believe the reported salaries of other players) have to be in the £300,000 a week ball park figure – that is something that Madrid, Barca, Manure, Chelsea, PSG wouldn’t have an issue with as we all know.
So, as you say, it would be so revealing to hear from these self proclaimed realists EXACTLY what they would do in this imminent situation that the club faces – pay the going salary, sell and have to buy two equivalent players at enormous cost (both in transfers and salaries)…be a big club or an also ran…sell our best players and have to buy inferior ones due to our transfer budget…let them run their contracts down?
I wonder if they will give us their expertise in this matter?
On point Ken. .my worry is when you have our attack having gotten to know one another over a period, letting the jigsaw break down although replacing with some equivalent striker, we will not collect points as early as possible in the new season. I wish we would retain these players and put an assult on the league cone the bew season
Tebogo,
Another great point as to why offering these two strikers the obscene, grotesque salaries it will need to keep them makes complete sense…if we want to be a top club.
Excellent point, but one that those who fail to realize what is needed to be a top club, just don’t want to concede it seems.
As the saying goes, pay up or shut up…a successful club or a selling club…the choice is there for Stan Kronkie to make.
First of all yesterday was not a bad performance,apart from the last 15-20 minutes and the opening 10-15 minutes we were quite dominant. We were Playing the 3rd game in 7 days time and everton are after a 2 week break so obviously they will have more energy.And there are many other positives to keep the spirit up.
About this article,
Eddie is still not ready in my opinion.He is a talented youngster,got great potential but to fill auba and lacas boots will be too soon for him.Him and martinelli needs to imlrove in many areas.And for me auba is one of the if not the most important player in the squad right now.If we are to be one of the best clubs in this rebuilding process we need him.
And laca is currently going through some tough times.But this guy can turn up anyte and when he does that he will be unstoppable.He has so many aspects in his game that auba/martinelli/nketiah dont have and he also lacks somethings that they have.
But if neither of them are going to sign a contract we should sell them but we must keep trying until the last moment to hold them down.
OT
We need to control games better and with hungry youngsters its going to be hard sometimes.They like glory and sometimes that leads to bad decision making.I have seen tbis in recent times in our youngsters.They will learn with experience but i just hope they do it faster.Players like ozil and ceballos releases so much pressure and gets control and i love to see how they do it.These two may have not done anything spectacular yesterday apart from maybe 2 or 3 moments but the influence they brought to the game specially ozil is just superb.
No they can’t stop worrying – and they need to plan for the possibility. The youngsters might well fill the space but I am not sure yet – we are so used to overblown hyperbole after a couple of performances – lots of people have good runs of form and then disappear (AND I am not saying this of either, we just don’t know).
Don’t shoot me, but I pay attention to Leeds as that was my Subuteo team. Eddie had some good performances but he was effective coming off the bench and helping them along. Leeds wasn’t as good with Eddie starting up front. That doesn’t mean same thing for Arsenal, but I think he needs time to become a full time striker. I think Martinelli is closer to that point now, but he needs time as well.
Nkietah scored one yes but the man you said we wouldn’t miss scored the other two making his total 17 in the premier league. For me Lacazette should be sold to make more funds available to reinforce the midfield. Abameyang is a different kettle of fish, he has blistering pace but how often does he actually use it? His positioning in the box is his second to none and he will still be as lethal at 36 as he is now. Let Abameyang and Martinelli rotate Pepe and Nelson on the right and then Saka for left wing with Martinelli again as back up. Priorities are midfield and Abameyang contract renewal.
The answer to this question is very simple, sell Lacazette and give aubamayang a new deal, with the way aubamayang plays, he will score goals till he’s 33, Pepe will eventually come good, if we sell Lacazette we should invest the money on a creative midfielder.
No way, he has got way to go before he can replace any one of them. Actually Martinelli is a better answer then Nekitiah. His hold up play, linking with other players, ball carrying n running with the ball n shooting from out side the box is very weak…he needs to work on these things. With him in team it feels like we are playing with 10 men. He looks like a good poucher but that’s all it is. Martenlli is far better, he is more skillful, can run with the ball, can take on players n can also score from out side the box. I don’t agree with Arteta playing Nkeitiah Infront of Laca just to prove a point like Freddie that he can develop talent. If we go on and sell either Laca / Auba or both of them thinking Nkeitiah can fill the void then I am afraid we are fools n next season will be another torture like de one we are having now. I hope n think Arteta is not that naive.
No senior team Gunner in the current Arsenal 1st team squad should be sold next summer but save the ones whose performance levels are below that of the top club side standard. And the possibilities of them to ever improved on their standard of playing while still at Arsenal is looking to be remote.
Samuel, if you had said that last year, when UE was the coach, how MA would have made you eat your words today.
Every single player has improved under Arteta and the club is now looking more like a top four side than they have for the past four years – never say never, just keep the faith!!!
Laca ya…. His doing good with Tim but not good enough to score…. His one of top striker but….