Eddie Nketiah leaving Arsenal has been a foregone conclusion for most of the calendar year, but not over the past few weeks.
The 22-year-old has come from absolutely nowhere to suddenly find himself being a major player for Arsenal.
Alexandre Lacazette had benched him virtually every week following Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s January exit, but Nketiah, a Hale End academy graduate, got a rare opportunity in the visit to Chelsea in April and repaid Mikel Arteta by scoring twice.
And at home to Leeds United last weekend, the England Under-21 international picked himself up another brilliant brace to put the Gunners on the brink of Champions League qualification at that time.
Everybody knows that the player himself is out of contract this summer and Mikel Arteta has repeatedly declared his optimism that Nketiah will put pen to paper on a new contract.
But with Newcastle United and West Ham United linked, Glenn Hoddle, speaking before the 3-0 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur on Thursday, which saw the North Londoners move one point behind their local rivals in fourth, revealed that he believes the player wants to leave the Emirates Stadium.
He told Premier League Productions, before the North London derby: “I think he probably wants to leave Arsenal, but if he’s given a chance he’ll stay. They’ll be bending down on knees to get him to sign a contract.”
Is Eddie Nketiah leaving Arsenal?
Unfortunately for the Gunners and Arteta, probably.
The Spanish manager is clearly a big fan of the young marksman, whom he labelled as ‘extraordinary‘ in 2020.
Problem is, if Arteta truly believed in him then he’d have played him a lot more regularly prior to his heroics at Stamford Bridge last month.
The truth is that Nketiah probably doesn’t feel all that valued by the Emirates Stadium club and leaving remains very probable.
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