Arsenal might look within and save £130 million to solve striker issues following the Victor Osimhen verdict.
All the attention is on Arsenal and the striker market ahead of the summer transfer window. Expectations of the problem being solved in the winter go beyond the realms of what can be achieved in a window so dominated by profit and sustainability regulations.
The main names present extremely expensive potential profiles. Victor Osimhen’s release clause eclipses the £105 million record fee Arsenal paid for Declan Rice last year, while the other striker linked with the club, Ivan Toney, will command a similar fee as Brentford are after the England international.Arsenal and Mikel Arteta have been blessed by having existing talent at the club when the Spaniard took over, and he has subsequently been able to unlock and improve that quality. Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith Rowe, and Eddie Nketiah all came from the academy, while the likes of Joe Willock and Folarin Balogun have brought in well over £50 million in sales during his tenure.
Perhaps there is scope for the striker situation to be solved internally in the future. Arsenal have produced plenty of exciting attacking players, although Nketiah has been unable to show enough to justify him starting the majority of games, and Balogun was unable to prove himself ready to take on the mantle either.Looking further into the club, the academy’s Under-21s currently do not appear to have the options either. Charles Sagoe Jr. made his senior debut in the League Cup this season, but it is difficult at this stage to see a future as Arsenal’s main striker, while Khayon Edwards is in a similar situation.
Looking deeper, however, a name does indeed appear. After going viral late last year for scoring 10 goals against Liverpool for Arsenal’s Under-16s, Chido Obi-Martin has made the next step in the subsequent months.Being promoted to the Under-18s, he has repaid that faith by scoring three times and adding a further two assists in his six appearances under Jack Wilshere, adding the third strike this past week. Furthermore, he has been brought on as a substitute twice for Mehmet Ali’s Under-21s, and he remains only 16.
Arsenal’s catchment of teenage stars continues to grow with Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly committing to signing professional contracts; the former will have to wait until March, when he turns 17, however. When they do, they will be able to leave the club on loan should the club believe some senior action would be best for their next step.It is worth noting that suggestions that the likes of Obi-Martin cannot be expected to be realistic starters in the striker role in the short term are accurate; Arsenal will likely need to find an opportunity in the market for that time period. However, if the elite forwards are not accessible and the Gunners can still secure something in the immediate future, then there is potential for some more special talent to come through, which could provide an answer from within.