Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has broken his silence on the exit of the club’s former youngster Chido Obi-Martins to Manchester United, MySportDab reports.
Obi-Martins, who was known for his prolific goal-scoring skills and other stellar performances for the Gunners’ youth team, joined Manchester United in November 2024.
Former Man United assistant manager, currently Leicester City head coach, Ruud Van Nistelroy, played a crucial in poaching the prising out the promising youngster from Hale End to Man United’s youth teams.
And since switching to the Old Trafford outfit, he has been on fire for United’s youth teams, continuing on his terrific goal-scoring form.
Recently, he finally made his first appearance for Man United senior team against Fulham in the Premier League and had got fans purring over his matured and stellar performance in the match.
He is expected to easily cement his place in the squad after the impressive showing having earned the plaudits of Amorim.
Now, while United are relishing this holy grail transfer, Arsenal seems not to have gotten over the transfer exit of the youngster.
Speaking ahead of Arsenal’s Premier League showdown against Manchester United, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta finally addressed Chido Obi-Martins switch to Manchester United.
According to him, Arsenal could only do little to stop Obi-Martins from joining Man United as the player had already made up his mind not to sign a new contract.
“Obviously, when a player decides that the best pathway for him is to leave, there’s not much you can do,’ the Spaniard explained.
”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,” he said.
Recall Arsenal refused to sanction the sale of Chido Obi-Martins to Man United as they wanted to keep him on a new contract but were turned down.
The transfer saga had to be settled in court as Arsenal appealed against it but lost out with United coming out triumphant.
Notably, Chido Obi-Martins could be in United’s lineup to face Arsenal at the weekend as both sides prepare to lock horns in the crucial six-pointer clash.
