Arsenal centre forward, currently on loan at Hull City, Chuba Akpom faces the toughest period of his career over the next six months: does he return to the north London side and stake his claim for a first-team squad role at the club, or does he leave in search of competitive, regular football like Benik Afobe once did?
Well, the England under-21 star has already confirmed his intentions to return to the Emirates side next season, harbouring ambitions to play alongside a friend in Alex Iwobi, who recently broke into the first-team picture.
But is he a good enough striker to get in ahead of the likes of Danny Welbeck and Olivier Giroud?
At 20-years-old, Akpom is reaching a pivotal period in his career, he leaves behind the days of being a kid learning his craft and enters a stage where he must start putting practice into action. Arsene Wenger so famously once said that at the age of 20, the ‘mental’ side of things begins to kick in, meaning that Akpom doesn’t just have to consider how well he can play the game but how ready he is to make the step up as a choice of career.
The Arsenal man, currently plying his trade under Steve Bruce’s tutelage in the Championship, has yet to achieve a season where he has scored over 10 goals, despite making well over 50 appearances for five different clubs including four loan spells away from the north London side.
At Hull City, he’s made a respectable 35 appearances including 20 starts in all competitions for the season, scoring seven goals.
Does a tally like this suggest he’s ready to make the step up at Arsenal? Quite frankly, no.
While Akpom is clearly a wonderful talent with plenty of pace, skill and dribbling ability, he’s just not quite the deadly striker that the Gunners need at the moment. Were he to rejoin Wenger’s squad next season, it would take something incredible for him to even have a sniff at getting in the first-team next campaign.
Possessing a similar style of play to that of Danny Welbeck, the 20-year-old Hull starlet is way, way, way behind the playing ability of the England international. Does that mean him trying his luck at Arsenal next season is the wrong thing to do? Not necessarily, no.
At the end of the day, competitive football is the best way for Akpom to make the step up and be able to prove his abilities, the likes of Francis Coquelin, Jack Wilshere and Hector Bellerin are all prime examples of this. However, training with the greats of the modern game like Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez, Olivier Giroud and Aaron Ramsey will allow the youngster to realise just how big of a step up he needs to make, and it will improve him to no end.
With calls for Arsenal to sign a world class striker like Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang or Gonzalo Higuain, if Wenger was suddenly to rush Akpom into the first-team, it could leave him under huge amounts of scrutiny – and it’s unlikely that will happen.
The Arsenal boss likes to operate with just one striker, meaning he has a choice between Welbeck and Giroud currently, as well as Theo Walcott should he choose to place him up front – although all three are wildly inconsistent at times, it’s difficult to imagine a world where Akpom is the resolution the club needs at this moment in time, nor is he the man to push his teammates.
Having scored an impressive hat-trick during pre-season for the Gunners on their trip to East Asia against the Singapore Select XI, Akpom clearly possesses something that needs to be nurtured, but that needs to continue for a little while longer.
20-years-old is an important age for decision making and it’s a time which will either make or break Akpom’s career; if he wants to break into the first-team picture next season, he may well have to reconsider the team he plays for, but if he is happy to take his time and learn his craft, he has the perfect platform to do so.
Comments.
Loading comments…