Ian Wright has suggested that Eddie Nketiah could replicate at Arsenal what Ole Gunnar Solskjaer did at Manchester United all those years ago.
The 24-year-old Englishman is the talk of the town after his impressive hattrick against Sheffield United on Saturday. Everyone’s talking about him, and Wright has now made a very interesting point about Nketiah’s future at Arsenal.
Ian Wright suggests Eddie Nketiah could be Arsenal’s Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
Eddie Nketiah has been at Arsenal since the age of 14, and he was always prolific at youth level.
The Englishman has had his ups and downs in his senior career, but the one thing he has shown is that he can score goals. He has five to his name already this season – Bukayo Saka is the only Arsenal player who can match that figure.
The problem for Nketiah is that he isn’t the first-choice number nine at Arsenal, Gabriel Jesus is that man for Mikel Arteta. There have also been suggestions that the Gunners could bring in a new striker in one of the next two transfer windows – Ivan Toney and Victor Osimhen have been linked.
That means that if Nketiah wants to be the main man, he probably has to leave Arsenal, but Ian Wright brought up Ole Gunnar Solskjaer‘s Manchester United career as an example to prove that you don’t have to be the main man to be successful.
Wright has tipped Nketiah to be Arsenal’s own Solskjaer.
He said on The Kelly and Wrighty Show this week: “Me and Alan Shearer were talking about it, and the best example I can say about somebody who accepted that ‘I’m a squad player’ is Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
“Even when I was driving here I was saying I’d probably swap my career for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s. In respect of people saying ‘you weren’t playing regularly enough’: But you were at Man United, you were with great players, you’re in all the top competitions, you’re going to get games, he’s scored loads of goals.
“I’ve seen him score four goals against Nottingham Forest when he came on, I’ve seen him come on and score the winning goal in the Champions League.
“I think Eddie may have got to the place in his head where he’s thinking ‘where am I going to go if I leave Arsenal to get the same calibre of football, to play in the Champions League, to keep myself scoring at this level and play for England without having to leave and having to prove myself somewhere.'”
Wright’s right about Nketiah
Eddie Nketiah is at the stage of his career where he would love to be the main man, but his role at Arsenal right now is not bad by any means.
There has been just one game in the entire season so far where the 24-year-old has been an unused substitute – that was against PSV Eindhoven back in September. He has played a part in every single game apart from that, and Arteta’s comments about him clearly show he will continue to trust Nketiah.
Being a player like Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who started just 216 out of his 366 games for Manchester United, is not a bad thing at all. The Norwegian finished his United career with 126 goals, 54 assists, 14 trophies and as a club legend.
If Nketiah can achieve that at Arsenal without being the main man, we’re sure he’ll retire a happy man.