Alex Iwobi says he’s learned the hard way that consistency is a must a top club like Arsenal.
The Nigerian international was a breath of fresh air when he first broke into the team, with Arsene Wenger showing real faith in his talent by starting him at the Camp Nou in the Champions League.
He found his second full season a bit of a struggle though, and as Arsenal found results tough to come by his participation diminished.
In an interview with the Evening Standard, he said it was a real lesson for him, and that he’s ready to work hard and take his chances when they come.
“It was hard but something I had to learn from,” he said. “If you are not performing consistently at a club like Arsenal, then there are other players ready to take the opportunity — which I learned the tough way.
“I wasn’t involved as much as I wanted to be but I just had to be patient, still have the same attitude, work hard in training and wait for my chance again. That’s what I’ve been doing.
“Obviously, I am an attacking player, so when you are an attacking player, you need to create goals and get goals — and that’s the main thing for me.
“People in my position were doing better than me in that aspect of the game, which is to eventually win games, and that’s something I had to work on.”
With the futures of Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil beyond this season very much up in the air, there’s a chance for Iwobi to show he can be part of the future of the club, and he’s determined to be ready.
““At the end of the day, there could be injuries which come left, right and centre,” he said.
“So you might be chucked in to play a Premier League game or on the Thursday in the Europa League. No matter the situation, you have to be ready for it.”
Be ready then!
Nice one Alex. Please now see if you can impart your new knowledge on young Mr Walcott, aka ‘Patches McGee’.
Or Ramsey? No because theo is always the whipping boy.or any other pile of shite that don’t bother to turn up like at Liverpool etc etc I’m no apolisgist for Walcott but always the same player.hes earning over 100k a week because the club fucked up at the time he was due to renew his contract. Look back and you will see we had no strikers yet again and that’s wengers fault. He signed a rediculas contract that was offered to him. He’s not worth it we all no that, any other club would have sold him years ago but… Read more »
Alex did seem to suffer from second season syndrome last year, though if his performance at Stamford Bridge is anything to go by he has really matured.
You’d have to imagine come next season he’ll be one of the main contenders to fill the Ozil and Sanchez shaped holes in the team!
He needs to seriously up his end product, but if he can do that, he’s pretty much a similar replication of Nasri (without the Lesbianism).
I hope he continues to stay patient, and learns everything he can from Ozil and even Sanchez. People forget that he’s still quite young, and with young players consistency is always tough to achieve. He has the skills and the ability, and once he gets the consistency and confidence, he can be the mainstay of our attacking unit for years to come. Goals and assists certainly help too!
He is very young to be playing so high. He’ll learn, improve and be a top top player so long as he doesn’t get injured.
Looking forward to it.
Goals will come in time. Just need to support him through the inevitable troughs.
The best players usually seem to come through at that age and look like they have been playing for years. Nelson looks particularly promising.
He’s still very young and even though he has shown the inconsistency that pretty much all youngsters do, he’s had very few bad games. Just a few unimpressive games, which is wouldn’t be a problem in most other leagues, but the PL is so consistently competitive…
Call me crazy, but I’d prefer we abandon the Pseudo-Galactico model of trying to purchase expensive world class players and shoe-horning them into the squad, and just replicate what Spurs are doing (which is basically what we did with the 07/08 Post-Invincibles squad) and bring young players through. The likes of Iwobi, Nelson, AMN, Bellz, sprinkle them with long-term former prospects ala Jack (if he remains fit) and purchased youth such as Holding and Chambers, around players like Kolasinac and Laca, led by Leaders who aren’t going anywhere and will retire at the club like Kos.
Thumbed you down because you mentioned Spuds – otherwise an interesting way of looking at how a football club should be operated.
Thumbed you up because you thumbed someone down for mentioning Sp*rs. Otherwise agree: it is an interesting way of looking at how a football club should be operated.
Thumbed you up for thumbing someone up for thumbing someone down for mentioning Sp*rs. Although I agree, it’s an interesting way of looking at how a football club should be operated.
Thumbed all of you down because you all mentioned *p*r*.
I think we have to be prepared to buy the top players to fill the gaps too. Think that is basically what crippled the 07/08 squad. Shortage of fit strikers, goalies, lack of depth etc.
Seems like this is what we are doing to be fair
It is spurs trying to emulate us not the other way around. They even have their own stadium debt, and big clubs trying to steal their players.
Annoyingly at the moment they seem to be better at it.
One difference now is that Kyle Walker is worth 50m, whereas a stadium still costs about the same amount.
Well, whether Kyle Walker is worth 50m is debatable but there are people stupid enough to pay that
Imagine winning the lottery and spending it on a Kyle Walker
Not sure what I would do with him to be honest
Their stadium looks like it’ll be costing a lot more than ours, whilst not being any better. Their projected costs have increased dramatically a few times since it was first announced.
Our benefit was that we could also build the old stadium and a load of flats at Ashburton Grove (shame the property market was crap), however the local council demanded much more ‘non football’ local investment from us, than the Spuddies are being asked for by their local council.
So although their income is much more than ours was, they are paying out a fair bit more as well.
I stand corrected … hopefully it will destabilise and fuck up their team like it did for us
I agree, however, we tried that, didn’t succeed, had a load of ‘entitled’ fans moaning that they shouldn’t be expected to wait for success.
The spuddies haven’t won a thing for years and their fans are used to that, so they’re ecstatic just getting in the top 4 and playing CL football.
It’ll be interesting to see how they handle it if they don’t get into Europe next season…
What Arsenal are you following?
Arsenal doesn’t go after high priced players in the market. Arsenal tries to find players that can give them value more then anything else. Just because you make an offer doesn’t mean Arsenal has Galactico model.
He can be a really massive player for us this season. Was hoping to see him today.
Hope he recovers quickly and pushes for a spot on the first team.
He has IMO the raw attributes to prosper in deep midfield. Quick feet, strength and an eye for the through pass. Personally I’d develop him for a deeper role and swap Ramsey higher up where he is playing to his best attributes.