Have Arsenal made a HUGE mistake with this striker transfer?

I can understand Arsene Wenger letting a number of Arsenal forwards go out on loan this season. After all, we have a massive squad and as has been proved by Francis Coquelin just this year, it is important for young players to play in order to progress and make it as professional footballers.

So with the likes of Giroud, Sanogo, Alexis, Campbell, Podolski and Welbeck at the club, it was hardly a surprise for our academy player Benik Afobe to go out on loan at the start of the season. What is a little harder to understand, however, is why Arsenal then agreed to sell the striker when he started banging in the goals.

This is a player that equalled Michael Owen’s long standing England under 16s scoring record a few years ago and helped the under 17s to win the 2010 Euros. So even though his 19 goals in 30 games were for a League One club, it was clear that Afobe was a class act.

The art of sticking the ball in the onion bag is one of the hardest and most sought after in football, so I bet the Championship club Wolves could not believe their luck that we were willing to sell – and his eight goals in 13 games for them so far have only made our decision a bit harder to fathom.

Just to rub it in, a Metro report has revealed that Afobe is now the most prolific striker in the whole country with 27 goals. And the way that Wolves are going, he could be playing in the Premier League next season. What are the chances that he would score against his old club? Have Arsenal made a big mistake in letting him go?

Tags Afobe mkdons Wolves

27 Comments

  1. I was surprised too when I found out we had sold him. He has been scoring loads of goals. He could have been a good future 1st team player

    Unfortunately, nothing can be done about it now.

    1. scoring goals for league 1 team….if he was scoring lots of goals for Premireship team thats a diff story

      1. You can only score goals in a league wherein you play, and his happens to be League 1. Why don’t you talk about Sir NoGoal?

  2. Wenger’s had some questionable transfers IN, but he almost always knows when to sell players. I can’t think of a player that has gotten better after leaving AFC. In fact, most have gotten worse. Wish all the best to Afobe and hope he proves me wrong. But it was always gonna be hard to compete with Akpom for a position where we’re already quite deep in up front.

  3. Well it appears Arsene’s made his choice.. What would yours have been?
    Thumbs Up for Benik Afobe
    Thumbs Down for Yaya Sanogo

    1. The argument should be Afobe vs Apkom.
      Sanogo will be loaned out again next year, probably to a championship team,
      whereas Apkom will be kept around the first team until he breaks into it full time.

  4. every season he always miss out on some transfers and refuse to solve the issues….

    the next season is gona be the same…..no diff…

  5. wenger unlike others manages is very unselfish when it comes to players,he wants them to play to improve even if it means letting them go to another club to get regurlar playing times there are so many times you can loan a player(coquelin) before making a final decision which is best for both club &players alike,by the way he was going to be offered a new contract but ask advise from his best pal wilshere who told him to move down division in hope of playing premier league football one day!!

    1. The one we should not have let go is Lord Bendtner. He is in the last 8 of Europa League and scored last night as well.

      1. Yeah, don’t use the word black.

        Just headless chicken, no wait that deformation, I’m now confused at least black was correct.

        Meh

        1. Well yes, you right but for the wrong reasons. The word “black” is entirely superfluous and redundant to the meaning – so why would you want to use it?

  6. We should have kept him. He is stronger, faster and more clinical in front of goal than Akpom, Welbeck, Sanogo and Podolski. He also has a mean hold up game. AW dropped the ball on this…

    1. In the grand scheme of things I doubt Sanogo and Campbell will end up as strikers at Arsenal. Campbell may end up a wide player like Welbeck has.

      1. @RVP
        I find it hard to think of Sanogo coming in off the wings and making any kind of difference…LOL
        That being said, he is our second best”targetman.”

  7. It is a pity the boss had allowed Benik Afobe to be sold rather than to continue to leave him on loan to League one MK Dons or upgrade the quality of game by loanning him to Championship side outfit – Wolves. I think the boss don’t want Afobe to continue to be at Arsenal. Otherwise, how come he will he sold him when he has fully recovered from the injury that plagued him and started to play again and at the same time scoring as many goals as he could, including those his 2 goals that help MK Dons to knock out Man Utd in the Capital One Cup. What can we do other than to wish Benik a remarkable success in football career elsewhere. And also wish the boss and the Gunners a total success today as they visit St. James’ Park to battle the Toon Army for the collection of all the 3 points that are going to be at stake, which the Gunners are going to undoubtedly collected to consolidate their standing position in the BPL table.

  8. WENGER : “OUR FANS JUST DOESN’T UNDERSTAND….STRIKER WITH 30 GOALS EVERY SEASON SHOULD AND WILL BE SOLD NO MATTER WHAT???…I SEE NOW BENIK AS A FUTURE WITH RUTHLESS STRIKING SCORING RECORD AND SO I DIDN’T SELL HIM UNTIL HE STARTED TO SCORE GOALS……FANS ALWAYS COMPLAIN I SELL MY PLAYERS WITH HUGE POTENTIAL TO OUR RIVALS…..SO I SOLD HIM TO CHAMPIONSHIP SIDE AND YOU KNOW TOP 4 HAS ALWAYS BEEN MY PRIORITY AND THERE IS NO RISK ………”

  9. Just a cheeky buy back clause like we did with Vela will do the job. If Afobe develops into a lethal goal scoring machine in the PL we can buy him back. Problem for Afobe was not so much Chuba Akpom but the fact he is over 21 years old. That means a valuable squad place of which we have only 25.

    1. Plus we got £2 Mil for him as well. If we would not have sold Afobe, Akpom would not have signed an extension.

  10. I think Wenger like any mortal is not perfect as he did in the past with some players. However, Wenger did not want him to be a perceptual peripheral player as we fans are not blessed with long patience now. We want trophy and the team is in transition, we may not offer him such luxury of patience.

    And again, how will he break into the team? when he isn’t given a chance? How can he prove himself? I guess he must have double his effort in training before wenger bestow his glancing eyes on him because Giroud will be persisted with, even with his profligacy. This is not to underrate Giroud, but is very limited as a striker. Wenger will jettison his(Afobe) prolific profile and go with Giroud’s sporadic exellence.

    It’s like our coach has a preference and patience for some players while some will never see his mercy to warrant usage. how Wenger persisted with Ramsey? and how inpatient he is with Afobe?

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