Will Arsenal invest or promote Chuba Akpom?
Whilst it remains well anticipated that Arsenal will be looking to recruit a striker this summer to join the front line, just who will be signing for the club, remains largely unknown. But instead of seeing a new face at the Emirates, could Wenger instead promote Akpom to first team duties?
Arsenal have supposedly lined up a few strikers as transfer targets this summer, with Juventus’ Alvaro Morata and Everton’s Romelu Lukaku being top priorities for Arsene Wenger. However fans remain fearful that Wenger could go with his all too familiar policy of promoting youngsters into the first team, rather than investing in the top calibre of players.
A few days ago it was highlighted that Jon Toral, who was on loan at Birmingham last season, could be promoted to the Arsenal first team next season after a highly impressive year for the Blues. Another youth team player and regular feature in the Arsenal Under 21 team, Chuba Akpom, could also be tipped to join up with the first team squad with the Gunners short on the strikers.
Akpom has featured for the Gunners a few times since making his professional competitive debut for the club in 2013. But since then, he has largely been put out on loan by Wenger with the intention of the young Englishman gaining some much needed competitive experience. Subsequently Akpom has spent time on loan at several Championship clubs with spells at Brentford, Coventry, Nottingham Forest and Hull City. However the 20 year old has not had the most prolific spell in front of goal, managing just 7 goals in over 40 appearances for Hull City last season.
Personally I do not think Akpom has what it takes to make a break for it in the Arsenal first team. However he definitely should continue his development, as he still has plenty of potential to grow into a good striker for the Gunners! But I don’t quite think he is worth investing in just yet and if Wenger is serious about showing ambition next season then he should forget about integrating the likes of Sanogo and Akpom into the first team because they simply are not cutting it at the moment.
All Arsenal fans alike know that Wenger should be investing in a top quality striker this summer, however the real question is, does Wenger know this himself?
BY AH
With Wenger you just never know,I certainly hope he adds more quality players and doesn’t just stop at Xhaka,we need a proven striker who scores goals regularly and another commanding centre half!
Griezmann and his agent are listening to offers! Get in there now Wenger, I wanted this guy since we made Vela’s deal to Sociedad permanent. Before he even went to Atletico Madrid.
Ive also wanted him for long but no way atletico will sell him..maybe for crazy money like £60m…and i don’t want us to blow our war chest on a single player.
If that single player is antoine griezmann. Yes, yes you do it!! And it would be 2 players…
60 mil for Griezmann is a bit too much… Something like 40 should be the maximum we should go for…
Ideally Lewandowski would have been my first choice but Bayern would not sell him at any cost. Aubameyang could be worth a shot, although very difficult and expensive again. So i would suggest we go for 2 forwards, i.e. Lukaku (ST) and Lacazette (RW). And of course someone like Manolas at CB.
I agree… Pay them whatever they want!! Griezy is the business!!
Wenger didn’t because he was still living under the delusion that the wandering whippet was a world class attacking option from the wings and Campbell and ox provided the backup … He then started playing ramsey on wing in a piece of managerial brilliance …. All 4 are still at the club and unless there are signs of departure … 3 of these 4 should be kicked in to touch whether that is in shanghai or stoke I don’t care … Griezman will not be at emirates next season at any price
I like Griezmann a lot, and he would be a guaranteed success for us, but I don’t think he is attainable.
Less sure about Auba but I like him too in terms of finishing ability…Anyway there’s no point talking about him this season as he has been quoted to be biding his time for a transfer to RM.
Suarez, Aguero, Lewandowski, we can get…in our dreams….
I considered Zlatan a few month back because he would be available for free but now I think its better that he joined MU because he and maureen belongs together…For them, its always about me..me..me….
Lukaku may develop to become a beast of a striker ala Drogba in future but at the moment I have the same feeling about him as I had of Benteke. I believe at the moment he is much more effective in counter attacking style of play than when his team is dominating possession. He scores a hat trick here and there against small teams at home for Everton but for very much of the season , he contributed better when they played away, as Everton overall form this season has indicated. Besides, like others have said here before,he blows hot and cold and disappears from big games far too often..For this reason I do not consider him a worthy upgrade to Giroud…
Benzema I like:)…I think he suit our possession based play and would actually enhance our counter attacking play with his decent pace and sharp eye for passes. In terms of playing ability, he, to me, resembles the younger Bergkamp much more than Ozil. Like Griezmann he for me, would be a guaranteed success if we ever manage to buy him (which I doubt). France already considered him better than Giroud so he obviously would be an upgrade.
Lacazette, Gameiro, if they can’t dislodge Giroud as a starter in the France team, I would not consider them for us.
Mario Gomez and Cavani – They were hot property few seasons back but now their stocks have dimmed. If no one else is available and their price is reasonable, might be worth to take a punt.
Janssen and Milik – Based on the clips I watched recently, I like Janssen more than Milik, mainly because half of the goals that I saw Milik scored in Eravidisie would not have flown in, in the EPL. With the Eradivisie, for every Suarez, Ronaldo, Romario spectacular success stories, there are also bombs like Depay, Luuk De Jong, Bryan Ruiz and Alves. But if Arsenal scout has done a thorough homework on them, and they are available at reasonable price, Janssen particularly might be worth a punt. He shows flashes of RVP in terms of his finising ability.
Chukba, Sanogo – Please not this season.
Similar to Benzema, Morata I also like:). Watching his clips, he seems to have all the attributes and skills that you want in a forward playing for our team but his less than stellar scoring record so far means he is also somewhat, a punt. The other fact that slightly concerns me is that he has failed to dislodge Mandzukic from the starting position at Juventus, and I do not rate Mandzukic as being miles better than Giroud. Nevertheless, if I have to put my money on a punt, I would punt for him because worse case scenario, he would still improve the overall dynamic of our attacking play, best case scenario he unleash his scoring instinct at Arsenal and go on to become the second coming of King Henry.
So Benzema or Griezmann, followed by Morata or Janssen.
Forgot to mention Higuain, well yeah ..him also if he is available at reasonable price, but don’t think we can get him…
wenger decided to use Sanogo as 2nd choice after OG. ?
And the sad reality that Arsenal had OG, Theo and Sanogo had to compete with sides that have strikers like Aguero, Suarez, Messi, Griezmann, Higuain, Moratta, Benzema and so on. Come on Wenger. If he would find one season he spends, he would only need one or two every other season.
2152 mins for Hull (who finished fourth in the championship), 596mpg (league)
No, no he is definitely not the answer.
For me Chuba is another hard-working forward that lacks predatory instinct. I’m all for youth promotion. And we have Chuba, Malen, Mavididi, Nketiah (If you haven’t watched Nketiah’s goal comp for the u18’s watch it!! the kid can finish amazingly well) which is the best young crop of strikers in the academy i’ve personally ever seen!!
Will be interesting who’s kept around and given a chance to impress and who is loaned/sold.
If Mr arsene wants to make Chuba the 3rd or 4th choice striker-that’s OK with because i believe Akpom will do great things for us and he knows our(Arsenal) culture and traditions(playing style). but certainly we need a proven goal scorer and if we can get it(player )with premier league experience that would be great. My choice is Romelu Lukaku.
Stats for Sanogo at charlton and akpom at hull both in championship.
Format: name, minutes played, minutes per non penalty goal.
Sanogo, 386, 129
Akpom, 1798, 599
For comparison, in PL the likes od kane, vardy and giroud are in the 160 to 170 minutes per PL goal (non penalty).
Based on these stats alone, Akpom clearly is not ready for Arsenal first team. Sanogo looks promising, but an assessment based on about four games is not long enough, also all his goals were scored in a hatrick against reading. Not sure what to make of that.
It is easy to dismiss Sanogo. He was purchased in the window where Arsenal announced they could afford to make big signings, raised our expectations and then did basically nothing, except sign Sanogo. We all expected a WC striker and we got a prospect. He made a difference in the FA cup final when he came on as a sustitute, did not score but seemed to make a difference to the team. A hat trick against reading playing for charlton sounds impressive but I have not seen the goals.
Does anyone have any informed comments to make about Sanogo?
Akpom will come back to Arsenal and first team. But as third striker whilst Wellbeck is injured.
Don’t stress about Akpom’s performance at Hull. Let’s look at Harry Kane when he went to Leicester on loan, he scored only 2 in 13 appearances. I think Akpom can work well at Arsenal, but he needs to be our third striker. Play him in the League Cup and FA Cup.
IF wenger promotes Akpom and does not buy another striker, not only will this be a massive betrayal of the fans as its clear we need a proven and experienced striker to push Giroud to fight for his place, but also this could have the affect of destroying Akpom before he really gets started I for one really hope this doesn’t happen, BUT i wouldnt be surprised if the penny pinching mentality gets the better of the boss
Akpom? Hell no! He should go on another one year loan before we begin to consider him. If we really want to get a striker who can help us strongly challenge for EPL trophy then we must put the right money on the table and get Abumayang. With £60 million we can get him, it’s steep but it’s worth it considering the current market price of WC strikers. And if you ask me, we should get Lacazette as a back up as well, but I know that will not happen.
I’ve watched Akpom a few times playing for England U21’s and not been impressed. His work rate is poor and he doesn’t contribute enough in terms of hold-up or link play. That said, on each occasion he has put one or two goals away just by loitering in the box at the right moment. I’d want to see a lot more from him before considering him first team material. I like Malen better although I’m not sure he’s an out and out striker. I hope Nketiah progresses because he’s on fire at the moment.
Mavididi another promising academy player.