It was only very recently that Arsene Wenger was fulsome in his praise of the young Arsenal and England striker Chuba Akpom. The 19-year old scored a brilliant hat-trick in our first pre-season game against a Singapore XI and he has done nothing in the chances handed to him since to suggest that it was a fluke and that he is not ready for some first team action this season.
The boss even said as much himself, so what could have changed his mind? Because The Mirror is now reporting that the talented forward is not going to get his chance in the Arsenal first team after all. Akpom is apparently heading off to spend a season on loan with Hull City instead, where he will join another Arsenal academy product Isaac Hayden.
Hopefully the young Gunners will get plenty of regular game time and come back ready to star for Arsenal, as we have seen happen many times in the past with the likes of Wilshere, Szczesny and most recently, Coquelin. But for Wenger to agree to this loan deal now tells me that he knows Akpom will not have much chance of playing for us and that tells me that something has changed in the striker department, as in another player being added to the squad.
We do not know who it is (Benzema would be nice) or even if there is a deal in place, but why else would the prof change his mind and let Akpom go?