Crewe Alexandra have confirmed that goalkeeper Arthur Okonkwo has returned to Arsenal as rumours circle that he could join Austrian side Sturn Graz.
Okonkwo moved to Gresty Road at the end of July on a season-long deal and has earned plaudits for his performances in League Two keeping 10 clean sheets in 34 appearances. He was absent from the Crewe side that drew 1-1 at Mansfield.
Usually, when a youngster is enjoying such regular football, Arsenal tends not to interfere with the terms of the loan arrangement, however, given the exciting opportunity laid at his door, it appears the decision has been taken to trigger a break clause in his contract.
A move to the continent would certainly mark a step up for the 21-year-old with Sturm Graz second in their domestic league six points behind RB Leipzig Salzburg.
Okonkwo was promoted to Arsenal’s first team at the start of last season to provide backup to Bernd Leno prior to the arrival of Aaron Ramsdale. Karl Hein and Matt Turner have since pushed ahead of him in the pecking order.
Behind RB Salzburg I think not Leipzig! Best of luck Arthur
I know we speak the same language but i have to correct that Leipzig plays in Germany while Sturm Graz in Austria. Nevertheless the clubs have the same owner/sponsor, the ugly sweet energy drink. For young players Sturm Graz and Austria is not such a bad place so good luck to him. Greetings from Vienna and let’s beat the bunch from up the road today
RB Salzburg
Not related to the story but… I am disappointed but not at all surprised to see that we have lost of out to Chelsea for the signing of Mudryk. This is absolutely Arsenal through and through – you chase a player for seemingly ever, the player is interested, and the selling club is asking for £85 million. So what does Arsenal do? They bid £45 million with a few addon bonuses. Then they make another stupid second bid. Then Chelsea come in and take the player we have wasted so much time in scouting and talking to. You either make… Read more »
“Arsenal through and through;” another knee jerk reaction.
Arsenal has recruited well in the last three seasons; that is why we are top of the league.
Ødegaard, Ramsdale, White, Gabriel, Saliba, Tomiyasu, Partey, Vieira, Jesus and Zinchenko represent real quality signings and a such a departure from the charade of the past, one Mudryk loss to Chelsea won’t change that for me.
I fully trust the process.
Our recruitment policy has been excellent recently. How could we win a bidding war against a club with no sense, and no financial limits?
£1 for your bag of sweets? Make it £2? Fine.
We’ll give you a Billion dollars!
OK!! Sold instead to the small child in the gold plated Lamborghini.
I’m not bothered about Mudryk to be honest – much of the hype about this player has been from his own club and the money is frankly ridiculous – my disappointment is more to do with half a transfer window wasted on this player and we do need a player or two..
Agree on a lot of your statement Onenil. The only concern I have is that I believe that the manager was really interested in the two players they’ve highjacked. It also doesn’t bode well for the players that we are trying to extend with, we have to show them big positives for them to sign on again. The thing that annoys me most is that we’ve wasted half the window chasing a player that was well over priced and they showed no sign of budging on their demands. Should have dropped that chase pretty much straight away and looked into… Read more »
I’m sure there will be a moment in time this season when Chelsea’s front four will be Mudryk, Felix, Omari-Hutchinson, Aubameyang.
In another life that could have been our front four for the FA Cup match at Oxford.
Never mind that shit.
Think of our bench and what’s on it if Saka or Martinelli get hospitalised.
Save it for a different thread. We’re celebrating our young keeper, who actually belongs to our club. Homegrown success always wins over big money buys.
We have a transfer strategy.
Yes, we do.
Waste half a transfer window on a player we never wanted to pay the asking price for then look desperate thus inflating any price we do pay for players coming in.
That is the reality that our dithering and time wasting has put us in – to be honest we would be better off just not bothering..
I think you have to realise how these things work. Negotiations take time. Unless you’re just blindly willing to pay the asking price (a la Chelsea). Shaktar know the window runs until the end of Jan, they wanted a bidding war. It isn’t a one way street.
It makes me laugh that people always think their club is ‘dragging their feet’ over transfers. In this particular case we – rightly in my view – did not want to pay that huge amount Shaktar were asking for. Brewster’s Millions Chelsea of course were – end of story.
Will you still be thinking that when either Saka or Martinelli eventually take one kicking too many and end up on crutches or the physio’s table for the rest of the season?
No, I think you are mixing up me saying transfers are complicated with me not wanting us to make any transfers. Of course we need strengthening in some positions, but that doesn’t mean transfers are easy.
Leon, mate, save your breath. The fact that Arteta wanted this guy big time is wasted on a lot of people – whether any of us wanted him or not. For the sake of paying market value for a world class player, we have wasted six weeks and now have a fortnite of trolley dashing wasting millions on players that the manager probably didn’t really want in the first place. We never EVER learn. And neither do the penny pinchers trying to convince anyone who’ll listen to them that this kid is ‘unproven’ in the Premiership and therefore, useless. Classic… Read more »
We clearly don’t. Unless you call putting in ridiculous time wasting bids that you know are going to be rejected and quibble about add ons instead of just getting the fucking deal over the line, is carefully calculated strategic thought. We can all sit back and moralise about the transfer fees until we’re (no pun intended) blue in the face. Us not paying the extra £5million is not going to change the transfer market, or make the world a better place or induce a Damascene revelation to all and sundry about the evils of money. What it might do, however,… Read more »
You win some, you lose some. As is the nature of transfers.
Chelsea bid for Jesus in the summer, we got him.
Sp*rs wanted Tomiyasu, we got him.
We practically stole Marquinhos from under Wolves’ noses.
Yeah, you keep that mantra on rinse repeat to yourself for the next five months and you’ll be ok….
I disagree with you on your price doesn’t matter concept. However, we still haven’t replaced Aubameyang after one year. This is terrible for a big club no matter our position in the league table.
We replaced Aubameyang in the summer with a player called Gabriel Jesus.
What are you smoking! Replaced & upgraded as Nainsley pointed out.
LANS
Don’t tell me – Chelsea want him….
6 foot 6 inches tall, has a huge chance to make an impression in time.
With that height he can make an impression in two different time-zones at the same time.