Has Chuba Akpom blown his chance of becoming an Arsenal striker?

We all had high hopes of Chuba Akpom becoming the next in line to become an Arsenal striking legend after some great introductory performances towards the end of last season. Arsene Wenger even said in the summer that he would staying at the Emirates this season as extra cover for Giroud and Walcott, but whatever happened after that Le Prof finally sent him off on loan to Hull City to see if he could prove himself with regular appearances in the Championship.

But things have not worked out as we hoped. Akpom has scored a measly 4 goals in 25 appearances for the club, and Steve Bruce has had to pull him up about his attitude a couple of times already this season. Now it seems he has blown it completely after he became overly aggressive towards Reading’s Danny Williams and came very close to being sanctioned by the referee.

To diffuse the situation, Bruce substituted the young Gunner, who reacted by angrily throwing his gloves at his manager when coming off the pitch. As you can imagine, Bruce was not impressed with his attitude and told the press after the match: “I’ve been in the game long enough to understand emotions run high and sometimes you make a complete fool of yourself,” Bruce said.

“He’s got that little edge which all good players have got, but you have to control that.

“I’ve had World Cup winners throw their gloves at me. Then I take a bit of notice. I’m not going to take notice of a 20-year-old who, unfortunately, when things don’t go his way spits his dummy out and throws his toys out of the pram.”

so Bruce is hardly going to be sending a favourable report to Wenger on his progress. If it was an isolated incident, and he had redeemed himself by scoring lots of goals then he could have possibly got away with it, but with an ongoing attitude problem and no goals to show for it, I can’t imagine Wenger expecting Akpom to be able to cope with the pressure or be able to score goals in the Premiership next season.

So goodbye Chuba, we had such high hopes for you…..

Tags Akpom Hull City Steve Bruce

14 Comments

  1. Too soon to write him off but the signs aren’t great. The petulance is the least of his worries – watching him yesterday, he seemed incapable of making a half decent run to create space for himself or is teammates. Disappointing but the reality is that most “can’t miss” youngsters actually turn out wide of the mark. Still onwards and upwards – Zelalem and Reine-Adelaide, they can’t miss, can they?

    1. @Trudeau
      I’ve never seen anything promising from this dude. He runs with his head down, doesn’t know when to makes his runs, very little defensive side to his play, though he did pull off a good tackle last night(rare)
      We should have kept Afobe…

      1. Man why are you so obsessed with Afobe, he’s gone deal with it, he wasn’t the quality Wenger wants, and also playing in league 2 is very different from playing in the PL let alone the championship

  2. Too soon to judge, Le coq remember?? Even campbell is finally catching up. How about bellerin after his first game against Durtmund?

    1. @muda
      If you look at videos of whenever Le coq played, with a few exceptions, you could see that he had what it takes. He was never picked due to AW’s favoring Arteta’s/Flmini’s experience.
      Akpom acts like he’s too privileged. a spoiled brat. Never got him…

      1. You could edit a video of sanogo, and make him look like Henry. If you anticipated the le coqs magnificent rise then I commend you, but you would have been part of very select group. I can’t believe people are guna calling the that rise to Arsenal to stardom. Like they new it all along. Surely not. Anyway it’s shame about Akpoms scoring stats so far. But I like a character and its characters who do great things. To m all it says is h has desire. Which is good: let’s get off the boys back. Plenty of time still

  3. Its awesome news to this gunners ear to hear that alexis has a very good chance of playing against man city on monday! Coyg!

  4. What do you expect? the kid has been pampered since he’s arrived at arsenal and that’s the big issue, these kids feel like they’ve ‘ARRIVED’ THEN they get sent out on loans. Some respond well, others self capitulate, I think if by age 20-21 if a player is not showing progress you can send him on his way.

    1. That’s just dumb, 20-21 is when they start transitioning from academy level football to top flight football, there’s a very bug difference hence why it takes time for youth to develop. Ramsey didn’t bloom until the age of 23, likewise Coquelin flourished at the age of 24, not everybody is a Fabregas or a Wilshere and can play well within their first few games

  5. How about Sanogo? Is he making progress, or is he still a mug? I hope he succeeds, but his time has to be running out.

  6. Wenger has said before that three most important ingredients are talent, intelligence and motivation (referring to Fabregas at the time).

    I’ve watch an interview where Wenger also noted that technique and first touch is two of the most important attribute in football.

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