Wenger tells Akpom to stay at Arsenal!
Arsenal are in a desperate hunt to sign a new top quality striker this summer and currently Lyon’s Alexandre Lacazette heads the list after failing to sign Vardy, Morata, Icardi and Lukaku. However Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger may be preparing for the possibility that Arsenal do not get any of their targets this summer and are instead left short in the forward line department.
Currently Arsenal have two recognised strikers in Giroud and Welbeck. The likes of Alexis, Walcott and Campbell have all also played upfront in the past, whilst the likes of Sanogo, Asano and Akpom are young Gunners who will be hoping for a chance in the first team. The latter of the list, Chuba Akpom is a player who is much divided in opinion amongst Arsenal fans. Many believe that after many years of being in and around the Arsenal first team, that it has become clear Akpom will not succeed as a regular at Arsenal. Others will believe that he is still young and at 20 years old of course he still has plenty of time to develop, but does he really hold the potential we crave to succeed?
The main issue Arsenal have is that we don’t have time to give the likes of Akpom chance after chance up front in hope that he will eventually gain experience and quality to prove himself. Right now if we are to be challenging for the league, as well as domestic and European cups, Arsenal need a well experienced striker rather than someone who is still learning how to play the trade. Wenger however has supposedly told Akpom to not consider a loan move away this season, with Le Prof keen to keep the young English forward amongst the first team ranks as a backup to Giroud and Welbeck when fully fit.
Akpom has shown some promise during this summer’s pre-season fixtures, however in my opinion it’s not enough to show you’ll have an impressive and effective domestic campaign, just look at Oxlade Chamberlain as an example. Akpom has shown during his loan spells that his goal to game ratio is poor, even in the lower levels of the football league, so what makes Wenger think he’d be effective in Arsenal’s first team. If Arsenal don’t sign another striker then I expect Akpom to stay at the club as another option should Giroud and Welbeck not be fit or effective. However if Arsenal do sign the likes of Lacazette, then Akpom should surely be set for yet another loan move away in order to gain much needed experience.
By AH
Yes he will get the chance, but NO he is not ready to lead the line for Arsenal
YES
I don’t see us getting another striker now so Akpom will get his chance
Reports coming in Chelsea have bid 30mill for Mustafi. That’s the end of that then folks. The joke continues. Why even watch this pathetic team this season, it’s a waste of time and there’s no effort put into it. Clubs sole purpose is to steal money
Is that €30m, if so the reports are that a £25m offer from chelsea has been rejected. Who knows whether it is true or not.
Depressingly for me, Mustafi is whom I eventually wanted the most this summer.. immediately Chelsea FC entered the picture, I knew he was gone. No way we are getting him now that Chelsea wants him. It’s such a shame.. that is a very good signing we missed out on there -probably a crucial one. Did we dilly-dally as usual? Was Valencia holding out for a better bid? Is the player even interested in coming to Arsenal?
We probably will never know the answer to those questions.
As it stands I would go and get jermaine defoe, I am not joking either, I think he would thrive on ozils passes. He done alright last season in a relegation threatened side playing up front on his own, he would also work well in a front 2.
He would jump at the chance and would probably get his England place back as well. I know he is knocking on, but he is a darn site younger than zlatan.
Depressing articles today :/ why no good feelings with transfer times. I wait for ARSENE to retire.
David Orstein of Skysports had reported specifically that it is only Mustafi and a Striker that Arsenal is pursuing. Now, it looks certain that we’ve lost out on Mustafi, are we going to lose out on the mystery striker chase as well????
Sad times.
Still think Akpom needs a season out on loan again to continue his development, it would be a surprise if wenger actually keeps him for the season.
On another note, Gnarby and Tasona seem to have started off nicely, hope the continue doing well, without getting injured
front line of eduardo van persie and bendtner would have epl defences quaking in their boots … net spending 0 … its doable arsene!!!!!!!
Akpom playing for hull in the championship, 35 games, 1800 minutes, thats the equivalent of 20 full games. Three goals and one assist is not a good strike rate. One goal per 600 minutes played, giroud is about 170 minutes per non penalty goal.
Ok, if he plays for arsenal he will have better supply but will also be up against better defenders. Performance in pre season is no real indicator, remember sanogo scoring four in one emirates cup game, I think against napoli.
To me akpom is not proven and if he stays at arsenal this coming season and ends up playing a lot for the first team due to a giroud injury then his confidence could be destroyed. Far better to loan out akpom and us to buy a proven striker.
When it comes to Spending money,
Wenger has to be the shrewdest manager in the world of football and that’s probably why the media seem to concentrate more on Arsenal fc than any other club, during the transfer windows.
When it comes to matchdays, Wenger doesn’t even have a plan A, let alone a plan B ? but when it comes to saving and making money! The man will find more roads to it than an A~z ?
Akpom is his safety net… Plan C
When Wenger arrived it was Dein who controlled the spending, dealing with transfers and contract negotiations, overall he was a benefit to us… Yes he failed to offer Cashley more and cost us a great LB but he got us sooo many top players.
Why did Dein leave? Well got forced out is more accurate.
Dein said we needed to keep investing in the squad if we was to keep winning and got Usmanov involved, we had desire to win on the board but the rest was greedy gits who inherited their shares and saw nothing but the money.
What did the old board do when we had 2 mega rich investors? Go public with a statement saying they wouldn’t sell to a single majority share holder.
Funny how that promise was thrown out the window when enough money was offered.
Funny how fans like you ignore all this though and blame Wenger, an EMPLOYEE of Arsenal FC.
Midkemma, not sure why you have got so many thumbs down. Kroenke is a hard nosed american businessman, he must be happy with wenger otherwise he would have sacked him. So wenger must be following Kroenke’s policies. As you say wenger is an employee, and as the saying goes, he who pays the piper calls the tune.
OT. I know it’s most likely the rumor mill churning out more BS, but the whole jonny evans links are unsettling. If wenger dares make such a signing (and I don’t think he will) it just depresses me to think what goes on in his head. I couldn’t imagine any of the top four challengers wanting to pick up one of our throw away players. By all means pick up a throw away ozil, sanchez, or cech. I’ll lose my ish if he even makes contact with the might West Brom. Those silvestre days were suppose to be over!
I just don’t get aren’t we an attractive prospect? London based, champions league football, world class stadium, huge fan base. We don’t have huge gaps in our squad, we don’t need to revamp in the ways chelsea, city, and united have had to. All we needed to do was add real quality to those areas, quantity wasn’t an issue. Unless he is gearing up for something special, a la pogba, (which understandably takes a lot of time to dot a millions i’s, and cross a million t’s), then I don’t know what the issue is. He said two or three players (which he says every year by the way), and we have signed one. He has admittedly found success in having the stars align and being able to sign Ozil, Cech, and Sanchez due to the changing line ups of their respective clubs. But to take the same approach every year is reckless. Relying on top players to no longer be wanted by their clubs is completely reactionary, and also relies on factors that sit largely out of his control. Know who and what you want (scouts work all year round right? Not just in January and the Summer?),be aggressive and get them.
Jeeeeeeee zus, this summer has been long…
I hope Akpom does get a chance this season. It’s almost certain that we won’t sign a really top class striker so even if we do sign a more experienced striker they’ll be what I’d say is second tier in terms of their quality – i.e. Lacazette, Morata, Icardi or Lukaku.
I read an article about playing Alexis through the middle for us this season, as he did for Chile in the Copa America recently. He played alongside Vargas with great success. I accept that Vargas is more experienced than Akpom but until Giroud is fit we may have no option but to play Akpom.
Akpom is a physical striker, he’s quick and if his couple of goals in the pre season games are anything to go by he likes to get in the six yard box. I think Akpom could learn a lot from playing alongside Alexis and around Ozil, Cazorla and co.
We’ve got a lot of young prospects who need to play first team football, Wenger’s made it clear that Akpom will not be going on load before the start of the season so it must be on his mind to give him some playing time while he waits for Giroud to come back.
I was disappointed when Afobe left without ever being given a chance, I just hope we don’t let Akpom leave without knowing whether he was good enough.
Wengers going to troll everyone if he can’t get Lacazette. He will then go into the last week of window and get Bony or Remy at discount price, and say see we signed a striker.
Mahrez looks like he wont be coming in which case Leicester’s front three will be better than Arsenals front three next season with Mahrez, Vardy and Musa.
It’s a shame that a club Like Arsenal can’t get a top quality forward because of two reasons. First the Manager and whom else it maybe are stingy in the markets. Secondly he keeps continuing to put faith in failed players. To make you cringe he will put up Akpom as CF against Liverpool in the hopes that he scores and Wenger will say we don’t need a striker, too deluded if you ask me.
The man city warm up on Sunday should be a good indication of where chuba apkom stands he scuffled a shot in America that he should have gotten on target at the very least he is not that accurate as few shots were way off but the city game will be tough he will be facing good enough defenders come to think about it I am looking forward to see how Guardiola sets up his team on Sunday
Oh don’t worry about Akpom getting chances. Some players are getting 5-10 years and more at this club and they are still getting chances to showcase their “talent”.