Arsenal: Eddie Nketiah has the perfect in-house mentor

Arsenal fans are rightfully excited to have Eddie Nketiah on the up, and it’s even more exciting given the perfect in-house mentor.

Young players need guidance, and in recent years, Arsenal has not been able to provide much of it. Players that were touted as the next big thing fell off and drifted away, and that is always to be expected. But it doesn’t make it any less disappointing.

Eddie Nketiah is part of the group of next big things. Acquired when he was bizarrely cut by loan-happy Chelsea, Nketiah has never stopped scoring, no matter what level he finds himself plying his trade at.

And then there was last year, when he came on in the closing minutes against Norwich City and scored twice to save this club’s sorry arse.

As it stands, I don’t think there is anyone more exciting in the system than Nketiah. Reiss Nelson once had that distinction, but I think Nketiah has overtaken him for one big reason – he has a clear an obvious career path.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

I love the idea of having mentors within the club. When you have someone that you identify with, that has made a career doing what you do, the way that you do it, the benefits are just countless, and that is where Nketiah is.

Nketiah is a goal-scorer, plain and simple. That’s what he does and that’s all he needs to do, even if he does more at times.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Nketiah seem to be brewing a bromance, and, as I keep alluding to, I can’t think of anything better for the young man. Both play a very similar style – run in straight lines towards the goal and score when the chance is there.

It’s seems like such a simple task, but it’s really not. It requires a certain kind of mentality to put yourself in that role, and both Aubameyang and Nketiah have that mentality. They just score goals and that’s all you want them to do because they do it so well.

Assuming nothing goes tragically wrong, this will all work out perfectly on the timeline. Aubameyang keeps scoring for the next two, three years and Nketiah grows and matures in a tertiary role and, when Aubameyang decides to move on, Nketiah steps in.

Next: Arsenal Complete 2017/18 Player Ratings

That is how things are supposed to work. It’s called a clean and seamless transition. Now let’s hope it actually works that way.

Home/Arsenal News