Championship title favourites Leeds United have boosted their Premier League prospects by signing a striker as talented as Eddie Nketiah.
It didn’t take long to realise Eddie Nketiah had something special. Ten minutes, if you want to be precise.
A 2017 League Cup tie was 85 minutes old when a little-known striker came off the bench with Arsenal one goal down to Norwich City, the away fans united in a gloating yet genuinely sincere chorus of ‘who are ya?’.
15 seconds later, The Canaries were already all too familiar with this fresh-faced 18-year-old from Lewisham. Nketiah flicked home the equaliser with his first touch and, deep into stoppage time, netted the winner too.
Nketiah not only announced himself as Arsenal’s hero for the night, he also showed a tantalising glimpse of that all-too-rare goalscorer’s instinct, the kind that turned Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Gerd Muller and Michael Owen into superstars. Nketiah has a long way to go to match their achievements but the raw potential was clear for all to see from the very first moment.
Now, Leeds United have certainly taken a risk replacing a proven Championship goalscorer in Kemar Roofe with a youngster who has played just eight league matches in his career. But there is method to this perceived madness.
Ask any Leeds fan and they will tell you the same. If Marcelo Bielsa could have called upon a penalty-box poacher, the kind who comes alive when the ball drops loose and finishes with ruthless efficiency, Leeds would be a Premier League team right now.
So often they dominated, probed and created, only to squander the opportunities that came their way. In fact, no one has come close to hitting 20 goals for The Whites in a single season since Chris Wood plundered a Golden Boot-winning 27 back in the 2016/17 campaign.
Now, it would be unfair to put all your eggs in the basket of a young striker with just a smattering of first team appearances to his name. Nketiah should not arrive at Elland Road under pressure to end their 20-year Premier League exile.
But, as he showed on that October night against Norwich, he’s a striker capable of changing the game in the blinking of an eye. He only needs one chance and already looks like the sort of player Leeds were missing as their season crumbled into dust in the spring.
Better later than never.
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