Arsenal: Alex Iwobi’s “huge setback” is all backwards

Arsenal’s young (and heroic) Nigerian Alex Iwobi is moaning over the idea of Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil leaving, but isn’t that backwards?

Arsenal’s contractual limbo with Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez isn’t going to get any easier the later we go into the debacle. In the end, despite all the options that are popping up, we are going to lose them both. It’s just something that we have to deal with.

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Thankfully, the club has shown tremendous ability to cope without them already. Danny Welbeck has stepped up, Alex Iwobi has put in some shifts and Jack Wilshere is still waiting in reserve to grasp his own opportunity. You also have to consider Reiss Nelson.

No doubt losing those two will be bothersome in regards to the individual talent that they have, but to call it a huge setback seems a bit much.

Yet that is exactly what one of the biggest benefactors of their exit has called it. Here’s what he had to say to the Sun:

"When they are fit they are unstoppable. They are both capable of changing a game — or a season. They have a big decision to make. But it would be a huge setback to lose them because from the stats you can see we do need them for their  goals and assists. For a team like Arsenal, we need to be aiming for the top four and we need what they bring. It will be great for them to stay. I’ve learnt a lot from them."

Again, I won’t speak ill of the impact they have had and the presence they command on and of the pitch. But Iwobi is pegged for greatness. He showed his heroics rather recently, pushing Nigeria to World Cup qualification with his goal off the bench.

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This isn’t what someone in his position should be saying. Moaning about who might be leaving the club and how the club desperately needs those people makes Iwobi look massively lacking in confidence. It’s as if he needs them there because he doesn’t want to have to step up himself.

Does he not realize that he is one of the biggest benefactors should they decide to leave? He will be given a first-class chance to settle into the Arsenal first team and elevate himself to the stardom he has been pegged for.

He will be 22 at the end of the year. There are 22-year-old starlets the world round who would die to be in this opportunity, not moaning over the prospect of having to move on without the watchful eye of two want-away superstars.

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Maybe I’m being harsh on the lad, but I don’t think I am. Their exit is his opportunity. If he doesn’t think he can do it and he makes it as clear as he seems to be, then that’s what can lead to him being shoved down the totem pole again for someone like Thomas Lemar or Julian Draxler.