After five loan spells over the past 3 1/2 seasons, Chuba Akpom has had enough and wants to make a permanent switch away from Arsenal. According to the Mirror, Leeds United are set to duke it out with Scottish giants Celtic over Akpom.
Akpom has spent his entire youth and senior career trying to break into the Gunners lineup. Making his senior team debut in 2013, Chuba Akpom has suited up on loan for Brentford, Coventry City, Nottingham Forest, Hull City, and Brighton. He’s only made four appearances for Arsenal as of writing. Akpom has featured for England, picking up caps at the u16, u17, u19, u20, and u21 levels.
While a move to Celtic and Championship League football may seem tempting to Akpom, he’d have to earn his spot amongst the likes of Leigh Griffiths and Moussa Dembele. At Leeds, first-team football would be a more realistic expectation. The Whites are very thin with outright strikers, with Souleymane Doukara (for now) and Caleb Ekuban the only two centre-forwards. You could do a lot worse than having Chuba and Caleb compete for minutes.
I would like this move a lot. Akpom is still only 21 and offers great potential moving forward. However, Chris Woods replacement? Anything but. Chuba Akpom doesn’t know how to score goals for a club. It’s not exactly surprising that Akpom has trouble breaking into Arsenal’s lineup; they’re one of the top PL teams. But you’d imagine if you sent him out on loan he could bag a couple goals right? Nope. He’s only ever scored a combined 3 goals for the 6 clubs he’s played for, all coming during his loan at Hull City. But, he knows how to get the job done when he dons the England shirt, scoring 20 times across all levels. Sign him? Heck yes. But let's use some of that Chris Wood money on a more prolific striker. MOT