Arsenal: Chuba Akpom sale illustrates fragility of hope

Arsenal have reportedly agreed to the £2 million sale of Chuba Akpom with Belgian club Sint-Truiden. His departure perfectly illustrates the fragility of hope.

With every passing day, as Unai Emery works with his new Arsenal squad, he is getting a clearer and clearer picture of how he will attack the upcoming season. And as Emery’s plans are revealed to himself, we, as mere writers, fans and analysts, are fed the scraps of clues to try and piece together our expectations for what the Spaniard has in store for the first Arsene Wenger-less season at the Emirates for more than two decades.

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The Gunners have already made five signings this season, which does give us a little bit of information to decipher the selection puzzle, but it is actually in the players that he sells that give us the plainest illustration. And it looks as though one of the most promising youngsters of the past decade is set to be offloaded as Emery chooses to move in a different direction.

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Per Jack Pitt-Brooke of the Independent, Arsenal have agreed to a £2 million deal to sell Chuba Akpom to Sint-Truiden, a Belgian team that he spent last season on loan at, scoring six goals in 16 games and evidently impressing the coaches there. As of writing — Saturday lunchtime –, the sale has not yet been made official, but it seems fairly likely to happen in the coming days.

Akpom’s impending exit is an obvious indication that Emery believed that he was no longer good enough to contribute to the first team. More worryingly, it confirms that Emery also believed that he never would be good enough to contribute to the first team. That evaluation is probably the right one. Akpom has toiled from loan to loan, never really establishing himself at any of the clubs he has been sent to, is now 22 years of age, and has slipped behind Eddie Nketiah in the pecking order.

The problem is what was thought of Akpom only a few years prior. This is a striker who was setting the reserves alight at the age of 18, Wenger, who, for all his faults, has always a good eye for a centre-forward, heralded him as one of the brightest talents for the future of the club, and there was an expectation, not just a hope, that he would one day lead the Arsenal line. And now, just a series of underwhelming loans later, Akpom’s time at the Emirates has already come to an end.

Emery deeming that Akpom lacks the necessary quality or potential to keep or invest in displays the fragility of the hope that fans often place in young players. Look at the eager anticipation that is currently surrounding the likes of Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Reiss Nelson, Nketiah and others. That same baying enthusiasm was felt for Akpom not all that long ago.

The process of becoming an elite professional footballer is a difficult one. The graduation from prospective youngster to fully-fledged starter has many hurdles to overcome, many undulations to ride through, many difficulties to endure, any of which could completely derail any hopes of success.

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I do not know what hurdle Akpom fell at. I do not know the cause of his failure to deliver on his potential. But he’s not the first, and he won’t be the last. It is simply the fragility of hope in the future.