Eddie Nketiah has served his term with the Arsenal team. It's time for the club to let him go so he can realize his full potential.
The former student from Hale End is no longer a child. He is about to hit his prime at the age of 25.
That is until he gets stuck at Arsenal. Although the Gunners are keeping him from having a realistic chance of leaving by requesting an absurdly high fee, he is not good enough to play regularly for Mikel Arteta's team.
Nketiah is reportedly valued by Arsenal at approximately €60 million (£50 million).
Nobody is benefiting from this. Nketiah and Marseille have reached personal terms, but the player is obviously not worth this transfer fee, and Marseille cannot even come close to meeting it.
The Athletic claims that OM has made a €20 million bid for the striker; the Gunners will probably consider this offer "unrealistic." However, is it really?
How much is Nketiah actually worth?
After all, Nketiah is the member of Arsenal's first team that plays the least. Only once, in a Champions League dead rubber against PSV, has he played for longer than 30 minutes in a single match for the Gunners since he played 79 minutes against Newcastle on November 4.
In the interim, Nketiah has not been able to impact the field. Although he scored against PSV, that was his only goal in the previous eight months.
There is little chance that his position as the starting center forward will change in the next months, as Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus are now ahead of him.
Arsenal has demonstrated that they see Nketiah as little more than a backup player by pursuing Viktor Gyokeres and Victor Osimhen.
If the tables were turned, imagine that Arsenal was asked to pay €60 million for a 25-year-old center forward who has yet to net a goal this year. There would be an unbearable clamor.
Just €14.3 million is Nketiah's estimated transfer value (ETV). This eliminates all human emotion and focuses on what he can provide Arsenal with, including playing time and output when he does play.
Nketiah never had a value greater than €35 million, almost half of what Arsenal apparently requested, even at his best.
Given this, Marseille's €20 million offer does not seem all that awful.
Additionally, it sends a bad message to Arsenal's young players.
If the tables were turned, imagine that Arsenal was asked to pay €60 million for a 25-year-old center forward who has yet to net a goal this year. There would be an unbearable clamor.
Just €14.3 million is Nketiah's estimated transfer value (ETV). This eliminates all human emotion and focuses on what he can provide Arsenal with, including playing time and output when he does play.
Nketiah never had a value greater than €35 million, almost half of what Arsenal apparently requested, even at his best.
Given this, Marseille's €20 million offer does not seem all that awful.
Additionally, it sends a bad message to Arsenal's young players.
One cannot fault Nketiah's resolve to make the breakthrough at the Emirates. Even though he has given it everything since joining the team from Chelsea in 2015, it will take a miracle for him to be regarded as the Gunners' starting No. 9 going forward.
It begs whether wonderkid striker Chido Obi-Martin considered his more experienced colleague's circumstances when deciding to join Manchester United instead of Arsenal.
The Gunners haven't been kind to their academy graduates lately; Emile Smith Rowe similarly endured cruel treatment from Arteta.
But that's the business, so that's okay. Arsenal, meanwhile, also needs to be conscious of the message they are leaving for the future generation.
Arsenal is holding onto Nketiah like a valuable asset, but his efforts have not been rewarded with a consistent spot in the starting lineup. He's not. Let it go. Let him go and see how terrific he really is. It's time.
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