Chido Obi Martin

Haven’t heard anything about him until now when I read this thread but sounds like a Dortmund move would be able to offer him everything the other big clubs couldn’t - plus they have a very recent history of developing English talent for a couple of years and selling them off for huge sums.
Not that it changes your point but he's Danish.
 
Not that it changes your point but he's Danish.
Thanks bud, like I said I hadn’t heard of him before this thread and jumped straight in. Silly assumption of me considering how international the game is at just about all levels :lol: - should really edit the post to just state talent and not necessarily English talent, but alas, I like my cluelessness being on show to everyone!
 
Gives me Adebayor/Kanu vibes.

I personally didn't see anything that jaw dropping in highlights.
 
Patino just hasn’t really progressed, he went on loan in the championship and started brightly but then lost his place after a few months and never got back in the team. I’m not sure he has the athleticism and physicality for top level football.

The best four prospects in the academy are Ethan Nwaneri, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Ayden Heaven (all three in first team pre-season), and a 14 year old named Max Dowman.

Rightly or wrongly, club seems willing to go the extra mile to keep the best kids but not for others deemed not as promising.

My sense is that Chido is not rated as highly as these others. He scored a billion goals at U18 level but he’s like a giant for that level and also faster than almost all the opposing CBs so he’s a hard prospect to evaluate.
You’re off your head, Obi-Martin is second only to Dowman in terms of rating
 
Gives me Adebayor/Kanu vibes.

I personally didn't see anything that jaw dropping in highlights.
Even if Adebayor/Kanu is his level as a player then we get either:

1) a good squad player who can score a decent amount of goals each season.

2) a profit when we sell him on to a different club.

These type of deals are low risk, and have an upside. I don’t see the harm in signing him just because you think his top level isn’t good enough.
 
You’re off your head, Obi-Martin is second only to Dowman in terms of rating

That is if you remove Nwaneri and MLS out of the equation as they are very close to first team and thus there is no comparison there.
Nwaneri will likely get lots of minutes this year for the first team. MLS also hopefully gets some.
 
That is if you remove Nwaneri and MLS out of the equation as they are very close to first team and thus there is no comparison there.
Nwaneri will likely get lots of minutes this year for the first team. MLS also hopefully gets some.
Thought they were already in your U21s which is why I didn’t mention them
 
Thought they were already in your U21s which is why I didn’t mention them
Yup, we are on the same lines then.

This will be a big miss for us but very likely its a revenue miss like Omari as meaningful stepup to first team is still a long long way to go.
And those who do make the breakthrough may not be as highly rated at this young age.

But still we have to fix this.
 
How do United convince a player like this to join us in a situation like this?

Money, coaching, opportunity, pathway to the first team etc...
 
Why even try if he moves to Real Madrid in a few years
Haha exactly

I saw some Liverpool saying that about Yoro. Glad they kept clear because he’ll go to Madrid in a few years anyway.

Baffles me that. Do they also wish they’d never signed Xabi Alonso, Fernando Torres or Suarez because they were only there a few years?
 
This would actually be really good, he is really promising, and it'd really hack Arsenal fans off for a while.

Much as he could easily flop, he equally could be the next big thing.
 
Talented kid no doubt. Folks trying to make out his numbers have been seen before, they literally haven't. He's shattered records at Arsenal. Comparing him to Afobe and Nketiah is disingenuous, why don't you compare him to Owusu Abeiye and Alliadiere as well while you're at it. He's on the trajectory to becoming a beast of a striker and while it's not certain, as far as youth forwards go he's the must sure fire out there. United fans bring up Wilson, Keane and McNeil but even they haven't put up these numbers. Scoring 10 in a single game? Acting like that's normal is wild. I'm excited to see him grow in the academy if he comes and I'm sure we'll see him make his full team debut within a year.
 
Talented kid no doubt. Folks trying to make out his numbers have been seen before, they literally haven't. He's shattered records at Arsenal. Comparing him to Afobe and Nketiah is disingenuous, why don't you compare him to Owusu Abeiye and Alliadiere as well while you're at it. He's on the trajectory to becoming a beast of a striker and while it's not certain, as far as youth forwards go he's the must sure fire out there. United fans bring up Wilson, Keane and McNeil but even they haven't put up these numbers. Scoring 10 in a single game? Acting like that's normal is wild. I'm excited to see him grow in the academy if he comes and I'm sure we'll see him make his full team debut within a year.

Definitely not an expert on him, but seeing some youtube videos, his playing style is definitely not like Adebeyor, Kanu or Welbeck. Agile, technical, physically well built with a towering presence up front. He could be a complete striker if he makes the right decisions.
 
Talented kid no doubt. Folks trying to make out his numbers have been seen before, they literally haven't. He's shattered records at Arsenal. Comparing him to Afobe and Nketiah is disingenuous, why don't you compare him to Owusu Abeiye and Alliadiere as well while you're at it. He's on the trajectory to becoming a beast of a striker and while it's not certain, as far as youth forwards go he's the must sure fire out there. United fans bring up Wilson, Keane and McNeil but even they haven't put up these numbers. Scoring 10 in a single game? Acting like that's normal is wild. I'm excited to see him grow in the academy if he comes and I'm sure we'll see him make his full team debut within a year.

He's certainly a talent. What's hard to judge is how much of that is down to his sheer physical advantage he has over the other players. You can even see from the highlights, he looks like a fully grown man playing against school boys. By the time he gets to U21 level it will probably be a bit more telling as his peers will be of similar size.

However, it's certainly a bit of a coup if you pick him up. Would be interested to know the reasons behind why he's choosing to leave, there was a bit of a pathway cleared for him at Arsenal in terms of U18 and U21 level over the next couple of years. Good luck to the lad.
 
However, it's certainly a bit of a coup if you pick him up. Would be interested to know the reasons behind why he's choosing to leave, there was a bit of a pathway cleared for him at Arsenal in terms of U18 and U21 level over the next couple of years. Good luck to the lad.

How many academy players has Arteta integrated to the first team, in terms of giving them genuine opportunities? I think that could be a big part of it.
 
There’s been plenty of examples over the years where some kid is amazing at youth level for some elite tier team and then looks like a deer in the headlights when they hit the first team of said elite tier team, and then end up playing in lower leagues.

So if he does end up at United, I’m sure there will be some childish crowing from the terminally online United fanbase and bickering with the terminally online Arsenal fanbase, with highly original banter like ‘durrr gooner cope not a serious club’
 


One of the videos I watched that included plenty of him

More of note is how well Arsenal's u18s press from the front, not much from Obi and more so Rosiak, Copley and Dudziak

He looks gigantic. :lol: 6ft2 at 16. Blimey
 
Definitely not an expert on him, but seeing some youtube videos, his playing style is definitely not like Adebeyor, Kanu or Welbeck. Agile, technical, physically well built with a towering presence up front. He could be a complete striker if he makes the right decisions.
Those are decent comparisons, what he has though and can't really be thought is that natural knack for goals, he knows where to be and that's valuable.
 
He's certainly a talent. What's hard to judge is how much of that is down to his sheer physical advantage he has over the other players. You can even see from the highlights, he looks like a fully grown man playing against school boys. By the time he gets to U21 level it will probably be a bit more telling as his peers will be of similar size.

However, it's certainly a bit of a coup if you pick him up. Would be interested to know the reasons behind why he's choosing to leave, there was a bit of a pathway cleared for him at Arsenal in terms of U18 and U21 level over the next couple of years. Good luck to the lad.
He looks at Mainoo and Garnacho and even Willy from last year and can see a clear pathway to the first team. Even Forson started in the league at a point so he can see an opportunity to become a first teamer here more so than Arsenal. Nketiah and Smith Rowe haven't been playing as much and most young players will look at this as a red flag. The biggest talent to come through recently in Nwaneri hasn't gotten 10% of Mainoos play time and young Arsenal players will see this. Now I get that it's harder to bed youngsters into title challenging sides and Arteta can point to that but Sir Alex had no issues doing this and in order to avoid continuously losing your talented youngsters, Arteta will have to consider how to integrate more kids or show a clear pathway. Arsene did it to great effect and Arsenal was known for this. Remember the Larsson's and the Qunicy's, Alliadiere, Clichy, Traore etc you have to try and bring them through. Not all will make it but you do it to show the u18s that if they grind they too can play for the first team one day.
 
Definitely not an expert on him, but seeing some youtube videos, his playing style is definitely not like Adebeyor, Kanu or Welbeck. Agile, technical, physically well built with a towering presence up front. He could be a complete striker if he makes the right decisions.

Kanu and Welbeck were very very different players though. Kanu’s technical quality was genuinely elite.
 
How many academy players has Arteta integrated to the first team, in terms of giving them genuine opportunities? I think that could be a big part of it.

He looks at Mainoo and Garnacho and even Willy from last year and can see a clear pathway to the first team. Even Forson started in the league at a point so he can see an opportunity to become a first teamer here more so than Arsenal. Nketiah and Smith Rowe haven't been playing as much and most young players will look at this as a red flag. The biggest talent to come through recently in Nwaneri hasn't gotten 10% of Mainoos play time and young Arsenal players will see this. Now I get that it's harder to bed youngsters into title challenging sides and Arteta can point to that but Sir Alex had no issues doing this and in order to avoid continuously losing your talented youngsters, Arteta will have to consider how to integrate more kids or show a clear pathway. Arsene did it to great effect and Arsenal was known for this. Remember the Larsson's and the Qunicy's, Alliadiere, Clichy, Traore etc you have to try and bring them through. Not all will make it but you do it to show the u18s that if they grind they too can play for the first team one day.

Perhaps, but I'm not sure what you say paints a whole story.

Nketiah isn't a kid any more, he's 25 now and had plenty runs in the first team to try and establish himself. Unfortunately he's just not good enough.

Smith-Rowe has been the victim of his injuries and fitness issues and at a time when the club have went from 8th in the table to 2nd.

We've not really got the players good enough from 18-21 in the Academy. Maybe Cozier-Duberry could have had more minutes, Patino has had 2 loans but never established himself at either, but not really sure there's many if any others that you could point to.

Nwaneri as you point out is the big talent, with Lewis-Skelly not far behind him. They haven't had any of Mainoo's game time, but both were 16 going into last season, a year older than Chido is now. Both should get game time this pre season, and hopefully they do well enough to keep in and around the first team.

However, something has convinced him his future lies elsewhere, so yeah, you guys are maybe right. If I were him, id head to the likes of Dortmund with their track record, the attacking naumture of the Bundesliga etc but like I said, if he ends up at Utd fair play and good luck to the lad.