After a barely believable start to his footballing career and signing for Real Madrid at 16, Martin Odegaard has actually had to prove plenty of critics wrong over the majority of his time as a professional.
Paul Merson is just another one of those critics, with the former Arsenal ace scathing in his assessment of Odegaard back in the summer of 2021 and being proved spectacularly wrong within 12 months. The young Norwegian's first joined the Gunners on loan in January of last year and clearly impressed enough for Mikel Arteta to make the move permanent.
However, there was a brief delay between Odegaard ending his loan and returning to North London on a permanent basis. Once the playmaker had graced the club's London Colney training complex in August of 2021 and was there for good, Merson launched an astonishing rant trashing the former Los Blancos man.
"Mikel Arteta is making a mistake signing Martin Odegaard – and his job could soon be on the line", Merson told the Daily Star.
"What are they doing signing Odegaard? If Odegaard really wanted to be at Arsenal he would have signed at the end of his loan.
"But he didn't want to join them. He wanted to go back to Real Madrid. In days gone by that would have been in it. You've had your chance. Next!
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"He didn't exactly pull up any trees on loan, did he? He only scored two goals! I think it's a mistake. I think it's another lazy signing. No other Premier League team was going for him."
16 months on and frankly, Merson's comments couldn't look further from the truth.
In that time, not only has Odegaard been named as Arsenal's captain at just 23 years of age (at the time of the announcement) but he has since gone on to establish himself as one of the most gifted technicians in the Premier League.
Adored by Arteta and the Arsenal faithful alike, Odegaard has even made the key improvements many felt were holding him back from being regarded as the next level talent-wise.
The Norway skipper has drastically improved his form in front of goal and started to become someone his club can rely on to put the ball in the back of the net as well as play the killer pass.
In just 13 league outings this term, Odegaard has bagged six goals - just one less than he managed across the entire season last time around. He has also already halved his previous assist tally, with more than half of the campaign still to play.
While that has already made Merson's assessment look rather foolish, being the first Gunners captain since Patrick Vieira to lead them to a Premier League title would be the ultimate comeback, with Arsenal currently sat five points clear at the top of the table.
