Why Chidozie Obi-Martin Has Left Arsenal for Man United

Arsenal’s Hale End academy has long produced prolific talent via its conveyor belt. However, while the Gunners have been able recoup a lot of its graduates and use them to good effect in the first-team – with players like Bukayo Saka and Jack Wilshere substantiating this sentiment over the past decade – there seems to be a changing of the guard recently.

Highly-touted midfielder Amario Cozier-Duberry and defender Reuell Walters had already sealed moves to Brighton and Luton Town respectively earlier in June, and with the news of Chido Obi-Martin being the next to depart – this time to rivals Manchester United – there is genuine concern around the club’s ability to keep ahold of their young stars under Mikel Arteta.

After the Daily Mail exclusively reported on the situation, it has become increasingly clear that those involved in Arsenal’s youth system are opting for different routes into first-team football, as a new graphic has also emerged showing that only three clubs gave teenage players fewer Premier League minutes than the Gunners in the 2023/24 season.

Why Chidozie Obi-Martin Has Left Arsenal for a Premier League Rival

He and his team had doubts over his potential path into the first team

Every club heeds academy losses every now and again, but with the departure of Obi-Martin, things have felt different for the Arsenal fanbase.

The 6ft 2in physically imposing forward scored a club record 32 goals in 18 Arsenal Under-18 matches last season. But it was his 10 (yes, 10) goals against Liverpool Under-16s in November, aged just 15, that really snatched the headlines and inflated the surrounding excitement.

Nevertheless, it hasn’t felt like the club has been too urgent about keeping him. While they did offer him a lucrative contract, as well as having offered Obi-Martin Under-18s football, with playing time for the Under-21s where the schedule allows, and to join in with first team training as the season goes on, the young Danish forward’s camp felt he deserved a fast-track into the under-23 team.

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Arsenal have a number of academy stars coming through, including Chido Obi-Martin, Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly.

From the Obi-Martin side of things, Mail Sport reported the decision to depart Arsenal wasn’t financially motivated. Instead, he and his team fear that the route into first-team football is far more difficult than it is at other clubs, and this has only been exacerbated by Mikel Arteta becoming averse to using academy players in his first team with the club now in a position to challenge for major honours.

This reached fever pitch last season in Arsenal’s dead-rubber Champions League match against PSV Eindhoven in December, as the Gunners having already secured top spot in their group. But despite Ethan Nwaneri, Lino Sousa and Walters all travelling with the squad, none of them featured, which has caused Hale End’s reputation to go from a jumppad for young players to a graveyard in just three years.

Obi-Martin is reportedly considered third-choice at Old Trafford

While Arteta’s reign has often seen him neglect youth, things couldn’t be more different at Old Trafford. Although the jury is still out on Erik ten Hag after last season’s horror show, he remains a figurehead for giving academy players a chance, and this is reflected in the signing of 18-year-old Leny Yoro, the fast-track progression of Kobbie Mainoo, and the strong interest in bringing Obi-Martin in to make a difference in the first-team.

According to Fabrizio Romano, the reported incomer will be in and around the senior squad from the start, being the third-choice striker behind only compatriot Rasmus Hojlund and other new signing Joshua Zirkzee. This, of course, is what separates Arsenal and Man United in the modern game, as the Red Devils gave their teenagers 2,898 minutes of Premier League game time last term, too.