Arsenal are selling Eddie Nketiah to Crystal Palace. It's time. It makes sense.
And yet Arsenal fans don't seem too bothered. Perhaps they believe that Nketiah's departure is the trigger to bring in a world-class No.9 to fire them to a title… but given that Emile Smith Rowe's exit to Fulham elicited an outpouring of tributes – despite the midfielder going goalless for the Gunners for two years – I'm a little surprised that Nketiah's exit isn't evoking anywhere near that kind of reaction.
Nketiah's headline stats will read that he never scored more than five league goals in a season. But that's not even half the story. His contribution to Arsenal, at a time in which they needed him, is far deeper.
I met Nketiah last year. You can tell when someone genuinely has a connection to their club: we've all been cornered in a pub, after all, by a self-confessed “massive Man U fan” whose last memory of their team was a Treble and “has had it with that Harry McGuire”.
Well, Eddie Nketiah is not one of those blokes whose extent of his Arsenal connection is that they pay his wages and he's seen the Invincibles on YouTube. He talked to me with real affection about the day he found out his boyhood club wanted him, and about how surreal it was when childhood hero Thierry Henry coached him as a teenager when the Frenchman was doing his badges. He said he was genuinely honoured to have inherited Henry's No.14 shirt and of the pressure it held. At one point, he smiled and said that if he wasn't playing for Arsenal, he'd want to be watching them every week from the stands.
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Over the course of our conversation, a lot of things made a lot more sense. He waited patiently behind Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for minutes, during a period in which Arsenal were rabidly desperate for top-four football and couldn't trust a kid to lead the line. He was happy to stay at one of the biggest clubs in the world, knowing the grass is rarely greener elsewhere – and when he was out of contract and offered minutes by others, he said it's impossible to have your head turned when Arsenal want you.
Since then, Nketiah's been understudy to Gabriel Jesus, Kai Havertz – even Leandro Trossard at times. All three perhaps suit Mikel Arteta better: all three are perhaps better players. But that shouldn't discredit what Nketiah has given this club.
He's always played like he cares. He was an underrated member of a team that reconnected this club back with its fans – and said his favourite moment as a player was seeing the faces in the crowd after scoring a late winner against Manchester United in 2023. He made it from the academy to the first-team. He took arguably the most famous shirt at the club and wore it with pride of those who'd done so before him.
Like every club, Arsenal should always aspire to provide opportunities to players like Nketiah. Players who know what the shirt means: and let's face it, Nketiah broke through at a time when it was debatable whether everyone in Arsenal's dressing room really did.
And for that, he'll be missed. Arsenal may well replace his output. They may well give his shirt to another superstar. But playing for Arsenal should mean as much to the player as it does the club. It certainly did for Nketiah.
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