Why Arsenal shouldn’t let go of Eddie Nketiah to West Ham

According to Evening Standard, Arsenal are open to the idea of letting Eddie Nketiah leave on a permanent basis. They want to use those funds to try and sign a creative midfielder. West Ham are the club interested in signing Nketiah as a replacement for the departing Sebastien Haller.

Nketiah has done well in the limited opportunities he has received at Arsenal

Arsenal may have a whole host of forwards at their disposal but not a lot of them are firing on a consistent basis. During Arsenal’s lean patch where they were struggling to win in the Premier League, one forward was still firing on all cylinders in the Europa League. Eddie Nketiah was given a free run in the competition and he made full use of that.

He bagged three goals in 6 games and also two more in other competitions. One needs to remember that Nketiah has been given just 310 minutes of action in the league. It would be an understatement to say that he has been underused this season.

Arsenal need to keep Nketiah

Arsenal were once known to be a team to nurture talent and use them in the first-team, with the likes of Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere and Kieran Gibbs becoming Gunners regulars at some point in time. But over time, it was somewhere lost, as players were being let go for some reason.

Serge Gnabry is enjoying the time of his life at Bayern Munich while Ismael Bennacer is starting regularly at AC Milan. Jeff Reine-Adelaide has become a part of Ligue 1 giants Lyon while Isaac Hayden has gone on to make over 100 appearances for Newcastle.

Nketiah is very highly rated and is just 21. He has scored goals after goals for the Arsenal U18 and U23 teams. Arsenal right now need to hold onto their talents and give them more opportunities so that they do not fall into a situation where they lose gifted youngsters to other clubs.

Read More

• Why Arsenal need to sign Carlos Soler in January
• Why Diego Costa would be an impact signing for Arsenal in January

The youngster has put up great displays and Arsenal need to tie down the player. In order to do so, they may have to make the player feel that he can progress at a quicker rate by being at the Emirates than going elsewhere.

He is arguably among the best strikers that the academy has seen this season or in recent times. If they do sell him to West Ham, it would be a talent lost for the Gunners.