Arsenal have agreed a new deal to keep Eddie Nketiah at the club beyond the summer, with his previous contract having been set to end in the next fortnight.
The forward broke into the manager’s first-team plans when Alexandre Lacazette was ruled out with injury late into the season, and firmly took his chance with both hands.
The forward starred in victories over both Chelsea and Manchester United to give us every chance of securing Champions League football, only for our side to lose away to Spurs and end up just missing out on the top four.
While it had been reported that we were set to strike a new deal with our academy graduate, it was seemingly a worry with time ticking down on his contract, but we have finally sealed his future as confirmed by the club’s official website.
Just getting started…
We're delighted to announce @EddieNketiah9 has signed a new deal ✍️
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) June 18, 2022
I’m happy that Nketiah has signed, but I do have reservations about what this means in regards to our transfer strategy. We had been linked with bringing in both a new striker and a new forward this summer, with a return to European football needing to be addressed also.
With both Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette needing replacing, surely we will still be in the hunt for both a striker and a forward to give us the depth needed to compete in a number of competitions this season, but it remains to be seen if our budget will allow us to strengthen in all the needed areas.
I personally believe we need another man in central midfield, to improve our backup fullback options, as well as bring in someone who can play both as the striker and in behind, but my hope is that the latter two aren’t combined into one.
Saying that, somebody like Lautauro Martinez who can fill both roles in spectacular fashion then I may happily take that back, but at present, it doesn’t appear that we are working on a player of that calibre.
Do you think our club was waiting on Nketiah before making their other transfer moves?
Patrick
Learn more about Arsenal’s proud history – Decade by Decade CLICK HERE to visit our new Arsenal History section
WATCH THE TRANSFER SHOW – Alfie and Rob ask how Fabio Vieira will slot into the Arsenal team
Im elated!
resigning Eddie is good business. and good for the squad.
excellent news!
Signing Nketiahis a very smart move.
We have signed a young but experieced English quota player for free.
City signed English quota player Grealish for 100 million.
Grealish is guaranteed 90mill in salaries.
Total cost. = 190million.
Eddie will cost us 25mill in total.
Last season City’s 190 mill Grealish scored 3 PL goals.
Arsenal’s 25 mill Nketiah scored 5 PL goals.
diaz jotta nunez salah
nketiah balogun martinelli ?
looking good!!!!!
My early prediction without at lease one top quality striker we will not finish in top 5
Very premature to say it’s good business, if he proves to be a success over the length of his contract then sure but if he doesn’t then we have another player on high wages difficult to sell for a competent transfer fee.
100k is not a high salary these days.
Kolasinac was on 120k p/w.
Willian was on 200k p/w.
250k up is a high salary.
Remember Eddie comes free.
Laca cost 50mill was on 182k p/w. Total cost 95mill. Went for free.
Auba cost 60m was on 350k p/w. Total cost 95mill. Went for free.
So Eddie at 25mill salary is dirt cheap by comparison and can be flicked when he wants a pay rise.
Makes absolute sense to sign him
For premier league club maybe not but apart from that yes it is high wages which is proven by our difficulty in selling players to clubs across Europe.
Yes but we seem to pay players more than they’re worth – we’ve tended to have among the highest wage bills in the league, so maybe comparing with wages at other clubs would be better?
And I’d thought one of arteta’s goals was to bring the wage bill down…
Davi, I think you misunderstood my point as I entirely agree with you that we tend to pay more than players are worth with Eddie on 100k being the latest example.
My reply was to fairfan. Yes, I think we’re on the same page
and how much do you think he is been paid in wages?
100k is not zuch a big wage nowadays…
If we are talking about top half English clubs plus a few others alongside the likes of Barca, Real, Bayern, Juve etc then I agree but as for the rest of clubs then £100k is too much. Real betis trying to get us to cancel Bellerin contract or Fiorentina deciding against taking up the option to buy for Torreira because they deemed the transfer fee+his wages too much to pay just shows that.
I encourage Nketia to join the Ghanaian national team. This will help all of us to see him in a different set-up and have better chances for his appraisal
Eddie’s got the no.14 shirt and is on big boy wages, I think it’s fair that he should be expected to score a minimum of 15 league goals and 20 plus in all competitions, minimum. It looks almost certain that he is going to be 2nd choice striker so would have enough game time to achieve that.
Lacazette was on 182k p/w and scored 4 PL goals last season. On that basis Eddie should only need to score 2 PL goals to justify his salary
True talk
No 14 shirt is all about goals, goals, goals! So 20+ is reasonable
No he shouldn’t. What kind of logic is that. Lacazette was massively underperforming In terms of goal output, around the 20 goal mark is what Laca should have been hitting for the wages he was on and so I maintain my expectation of Eddie
If for instance Nketiah is playing for Ajax or Porto and arsenal went and pay 25m to buy him most of us fans will be very positive to have him. We should at least give value to our players sometimes, eddie is young and can still improve his game
Not necessarily, however I agree with your last point, he can improve but surely that just reinforces my point. He scored 5 goals in 7 League starts in the run-in, so on improved wages-which should mean improvement in performance and goal output, is 15 league goals over the course of a season really not a fair target?
5 goals in 7 should equate to 20 goals in 28 matches this season
To answer the headline, no it doesn’t, as we knew this some time ago. Glad he’s signed and obviously he knew we were also going to sign another striker, but the reward of a 5 year deal on mega money would have been difficult to resist, when he wouldn’t get that anywhere else! Money over ambition methinks.
imagine if we went through all of this and came out the other end with our purple patch kid as our starting Striker option???
I don’t think that will happen
He’s never even played a full season, just happened to finish this one as first choice striker and we’re happy (desperate) to give him 5m a year. It’s actually spineless that we’d do this.
How much are Saka or martinelli worth then? 15m each?
15m a year each
I think should have been given £50k a week and if he scores over 20 goals this season give him a bonus that equals out to £100k a week