Nketiah contractual situation proof that Arsenal still haven’t learned their lesson
Eddie Nketiah has a contract at Arsenal until the summer of next year. That means if the Gunners decide to move him on this summer, they can hardly negotiate a fee which they would have liked.
You have no right to say that the Gunners are in a good situation with Nketiah.
The 21-year-old is the top-scorer and the captain of the U21 England side. He is homegrown and young, with huge potential.
Liverpool sold Rhian Brewster for £23.5 million, who hadn’t even made a single appearance in the league. While Arsenal will see their England’s U21 top scorer leave for a nominal fee if he does not sign a contract extension.
And it doesn’t look like they will hand him one.
The transfer and contractual decisions that the club have made in the past half a decade has been ridiculous. They have invested massively in players such as Mesut Ozil, Shkodran Mustafi, Sokratis, Alexis Sanchez, Lucas Perez and Danny Welbeck.
However, money received from those sales was a big fat zero. Alexander Lacazette appears to be the next in line who would be sold for a nominal fee.
Although Arteta has previously said that he is happy with Lacazette, and would indulge in talks with him in the summer, they would be expected to sell one of Aubameyang or the Frenchman.
The Gabon international will be 32-year-old in June, and would not be expected to play on the wing for the remainder of his three-year contract.
Moving our attention back to Nketiah, the 21-year-old will hardly gain anything from the rest of the season. If Arsenal saw Martinelli getting back to fitness at the end of December, why did they not contemplate letting Nketiah go on loan, or even permanently?
We can ask countless questions without getting any answers from Arsenal Football Club.
The Englishman’s value is decreasing by each passing day. Unlike (let’s take an example of Lingard) Lingard, whose contract is expiring next season like Nketiah, but whose market value is surging due to the impact he is making at London Stadium.
At a point where Arsenal desperately need money for their rebuild, damaging the value of such a prized asset who will garner attention elsewhere was a huge failure on the club’s part.
Yash Bisht
Connect with the writer via Twitter/Instagram: @yarsenal09
I think Nketiah was initially considered to be Lacazette’s replacement, so he wasn’t loaned out
TV rights, the growing world audience, Billionaire owners and the gentrification of PL football has seen the sport deluged with money.
90% of it goes to the players!!!
The fans pay through the nose while the pigs can’t get their nose out of the trough.
Arsenal will get off light with Nketiah as he cost nothing to buy.
It’s players like Pepe Aubameyang and Lacazette who are gonna cost the club mega millions as the clubs who can afford their salaries PSG, Man City, Bayern + RM don’t want them and the clubs who do want them can’t afford them. And the players are not going to take a 100k p/w pay cut to move. We are stuck with them.
So Arteta will have at least 25 of this squad next season. Only Luiz and the two loanees are out of contract.
All we can do is replace Ceballos with a loan LB and bring back Torreira Guendouzi, Saliba and Willock. Niles won’t leave as he can leave next summer on a free and double his present 34k p/w salary.
Ramsey Sanchez Ozil Socritis and
Mustafi have shown the way.
May be it’s time to update the Bosman law?
As an Academy graduate, the need to extend his contract is not so important in determining his worth in the Transfer market.As it is , I suspect the likes of Nketiah and AMN will be offered as a trade in for one of our priority targets, such as Bissouma of Brighton who may well be receptive to such a deal.In the present economic gloom , loans and swaps are likely to be a feature of the next transfer window.
We got Pepe and Saka and Willan to play on the wings. Plus we have two or even three striker’s, if you include balogan as well. So why ain’t we playing them
should have been sold after bielsa sent him packing … like brewster who is also a hapless footballer we might have got silly money for a very average player … will end up somewhere in the championship in a couple of years time … need to move on
I strongly agree.
Not physical enough as number 9 and he is not Aguero. He can make it at wings but needs education, and he must be convinced and wanting to change position.
He may benefit going to a less physical league, only Arsenal should have sent him earlier.
Now, one year left, selling may br the best decision.
our handling of all things asset management-related has been abysmal for the better part of a decade…when will this unprofessional nonsense ever end?!?
TRVL, hopefully the addition of experienced Richard Garlick as Director of Football Operations will improve things for the better. I had high hopes for Tim Lewis, who apart from being instrumental in the departure of Sanheili, has not had the influence I expected.
As you state TRVlL, over the past decade the Arsenal Board couldn’t organize a root in a brothel with a handful of £50 pound notes.
lOG…love the brothel analogy…sad but true…Garlick has a somewhat interesting CV, albeit his only club experience would end in relegation, I thought his previous position in the League offices might have bore fruit when it came to unearthing some youthful prospects…I guess we’ll know soon enough
TRVL, old Australian analogy for “gross incompetence”, so not original on my part, but worth remembering.
But I thought West Ham were ready to offer $20 million for Nkeitah & this manager & club refused such a move
Is he worth anything? You can score a hundred tap in for England Under 23s, but this guy would struggle in the Australian A League.