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Arsenal: Eddie Nketiah Doing Much More Than Scoring Goals
By Josh Sippie
Arsenal’s youth system may damn well be picking up with the same gusto as their senior squad. And Eddie Nketiah is merely highlighting that.
The debt years at Arsenal cut deeply. Not only was the senior side struggling to mount serious title challenges (although they still stayed in the Champions League, never undervalue that), but the youth side seemed to be drained of all of its resources as well, as the best products were sold off before the Gunner’s could truly enjoy them.
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Well, the youth system is recovering now, just like the senior side. No longer are our top prospects being lost. Now, not only is the Arsenal academy churning out some very promising talents, but some are already nearing sticking at the senior level.
All of this random praise was brought on by Eddie Nketiah, the Gunner’s 17 year old striker prospect who scored a hat trick for the U23 squad. Keep in mind, that’s a 17 year old. Playing six years above his level.
That’s pretty special.
But what makes it truly special goes beyond the goals (he has five total on the year. Nketiah is a fantastic reminder that the internal competition that Wenger preaches is alive and well in the academy just as much as it is at the first team.
With Olivier Giroud, Alexis Sanchez, Lucas Perez and Danny Welbeck all vying for that striker role, only the strongest will emerge and everyone else has to get stronger.
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The same situation is developing in the youth system. At first it was only Stephy Mavididi as the future behind Chuba Akpom. Then there was the emergence of Donyell Malen. With Nketiah claiming the spot light, we can see quite clearly that this U18 striker trio is something to look forward too.
All three have, at various times, shown that they can score and all three have plenty of time to iron out the inconsistencies. Ideally, all three will make the grade and honestly, from the samples we’ve seen at the youth side, that’s not all that unrealistic.
I am so often singing the praises of the young Dutchman Donyell Malen that I can lose track of Mavididi and Nketiah but again, those latter two don’t stay forgotten long.
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Plus, Nketiah was let go of the Chelsea U14 side, so it would just be too perfect if he could rise to his full potential at Arsenal. Icing on the cake.