Danny Welbeck is increasingly unlikely to be offered a new Arsenal deal when his expires in the summer because of the emergence of Eddie Nketiah and Joe Willock according to Oliver Holt in the Mail on Sunday.
Oliver Holt covered the Arsenal game at Blackpool for the Mail on Sunday (usually Sami Mokbel covers Arsenal) and his report was stuffed full of praise for both Willock and Nketiah.
“In a stadium with swathes of empty seats caused by an ongoing home fans’ boycott, they cruised past their League One opponents courtesy of a display of great promise, elegance and style by two of their best prospects, Eddie Nketiah and Joe Willock,” Holt wrote.
It would have been easy for Holt to lay into Nketiah for his hattrick of missed chances, but rather than pick the low-hanging fruit, Holt opted instead to highlight what the teenager had done right on the day, which was quite a lot.
“Nketiah missed a hat-trick of chances but still managed to ooze class as his running and intelligence pulled Blackpool’s defence to pieces,” Holt continued. “And Willock, an attacking midfielder who reads the game beautifully and is a master of cleverly timed runs, made up for his fellow teenager’s profligacy by scoring the two first-half goals that were already taking Arsenal through before Alex Iwobi scored a late third.”
Later in his piece, Holt dropped this line – “The emergence of both Nketiah and Willock are the reason why it is considered increasingly unlikely that Danny Welbeck will be offered a new contract next season.”
Welbeck is out of contract in the summer and although he is out of his cast and working hard to return, it seems unlikely that he has a future at the club after three serious injuries and just 32 goals (15 assists) in 126 games over four-and-a-half years (average 28 games a season).
https://twitter.com/DannyWelbeck/status/1081222453802749954
He looks like he will be leaving the club along with Aaron Ramsey. Both Petr Cech and Nacho Monreal are also out of contract in the summer and their futures are equally uncertain at this point.