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The Arsenal coach has expressed his disappointment at seeing one of the club’s academy graduates leave for their Premier League rivals Manchester United.
Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta has spoken about the departure of young striker Chido Obi from the club to join Premier League rivals Manchester United.
Obi turned down a new contract at Arsenal when his deal expired and opted to move to United last October and having started in the U18 team, he has been making cameo appearances in Ruben Amorim’s side in recent matches.
His appearance against Fulham in the FA Cup last weekend left United fans impressed and ahead of the Red Devils meeting with Arsenal in the Premier League on Sunday, Arteta has opened up on how it felt to see such a talented youngster leave the club for one of their rivals.
“Obviously, when a player decides that the best pathway for him is to leave, there's not much you can do,” Arteta said on Friday.
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“Very unfortunate because we want to keep our players from the academy and to be very successful with the first team. But in that case, with Ayden (Heaven), we weren't able to do that.
“To persuade a player to stay, a player has to be willing to be with us and commit to us and I don’t know specifically, both parties will feel very different about it. The reality is that he has decided to move and we have moved on from that.”
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Arteta then went into details over the qualities of Obi, rated one of the brightest young prospects in Europe.
“Massive goal threat, an attitude and love to be inside the box and a capacity to score in many different ways. That was him,” the Arsenal coach spoke of the 17-year-old, who is eligible to play for Nigeria, Denmark and England.
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Obi, who has scored seven goals in three matches for United U18 team in the Youth Cup, made his senior team debut when he came on as a 90th minute substitute in the Red Devil’s 1-0 loss away to Tottenham last month and also got minutes in the 2-2 draw against Everton, when he showed good positioning and movement, before his appearance in the FA Cup.
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