Arsenal's striving for Noni Madueke has provoked a noisy online reaction from fans. A poll by Sky Sports shows that about 70 percent of the 35,000 voters feel that he would be a poor signing. Some have even signed a petition against the deal.
For many, the frustration comes again from Arsenal shop in Chelsea. Madueke will be the seventh player in six years to move from Stamford Bridge to the Emirates Stadium. The list contains warning stories in David Luiz, Willian and Raheem Sterling.
Go further back and there are more examples, from William Gallas and Lassana Diarra to Petr Cech. In general it is clear which club has benefited the most from the transactions. Even the more successful signing sessions, especially Kai Havertz, continue to split the opinion.
The £ 65 million paid for Havertz remains a topic of debate, two years later, and the finances involved in the deal for Madueke are even more controversial. Arsenal pays up to £ 52 million, so that Chelsea can make a huge profit on a player that they signed for £ 29 million in 2023.
It is a considerable fee, especially for a player who mainly plays in the same position as Bukayo Saka. Arsenal fans have the right to wonder whether the 23-year-old has done enough in Chelsea for the past two and a half years to justify an increase of 70 percent in its value.
A lack of end product has been a source of frustration. Madueke started last season with a hat trick against Wolves in a 6-2 victory in Molineux, but only scored seven times and gave a total of only three assists in 32 Premier League performances.
The top positions are modest, but Arsenal will have noticed that they could easily have been higher. Statistically, Madueke's shots were worth a total of 9.64 expected goals.
The fact that he scored nearly three goals less than 'expected' can be interpreted as proof that he is a bad finisher, but it is more likely to be variance. Last season one looks out; The first in Madueke's career in which he printed behind his expected goals.
Arsenal will be sure that a reversal to the average in the future could yield a higher return and, even in the midst of questions about his end product, there is no doubt about the threat he offers.
Madueke achieved the top 15 players of the Premier League for non-penalty expected goals and expected assists combined per 90 minutes last season. He was in the top 10 for shots per 90 minutes and even higher for touches in the opposition box, in the fifth.
Long -belly and upright, he is not the most aesthetic pleasant of players. His running style may seem uncomfortable. But he is a fast and effective ball carrier whose directness Arsenal would give a different weapon about transitions and when demolishing compact defenses.
Last season he obtained top of all Premier League players for shot-ending Carry's per 90 minutes, at 1.63. His average of 1.98 successful dribbles almost equaled him with Saka (2.13) and a long road for Martinelli (1.29) or Leandro Trossard (1.34).
Saka backup or martinelli competition?
Of course Madueke's best work has come from the right, where Saka has become a fixture in the Mikel Arteta team. The Academy product is the best and most important player in Arsenal.
Madueke's chance to overcome him looks slim. However, what he can do is offer a high quality alternative, share the workload of his English teammate and therefore reduced the risk of another injury, such as the hamstring tear that turned out to be so expensive in the past term.
Yet Arsenal does not consist of £ 50 million only for a Saka backup? With reports that suggest that Trossard could be sold this summer, Madueke is also expected to be used as an option Left.
It is reasonable for Arsenal fans to feel impressed by that prospect, given earlier links to more controversial goals such as Rodrygo from Real Madrid. In contrast to the Brazilian international, Madueke is not even a natural on that side.
At first glance, his performances on the left for Chelsea do not seem to offer much encouragement in the last weeks of last season. Madueke did not produce goals or helps starting that side. However, he produced some encouraging displays.
There was a particularly striking version in a 1-0 win over Everton in April, when he forced a series of rescues from Jordan Pickford. A week later, in a 3-1 victory over Liverpool, he was dangerous in the same way, where Arne Slot described the problems caused by his dribbling as “something he had never seen before” by his side.
Madueke was then used on the left by English boss Thomas Tuchel. He was one of the few players who made an impression in their narrow World Cup qualification win on Andorra last month.
Yet it is not the most compelling oeuvre.
Madueke was used almost exclusively on the right by former Club PSV Eindhoven. Less than 10 percent of his first minutes of the League came to Chelsea on the left.
Ensure work speed or misconception?
Madueke will have to prove his left-wing references to Arsenal fans. Some will say that he also has something to prove in terms of his working speed and temperament.
Enzo Maresca clearly appreciated Madueke and started him more often than any other Chelsea wing player last season, but he also asked the consistency of his application. “Noni can do much more,” he said in December, before he dropped him for a match against Fulham. “He must understand that he has to train well every day.”
Maresca's comments, in combination with an inappropriate dispute with teammate Nicolas Jackson about a penalty against Everton last year, contributed to the shaping of negative perceptions by Madueke, but others who coached him paint a completely different picture.
Saul Isaksson-Hurst, a technical and skills specialist who has been working with Madueke on an individual basis since his time, described him as a “mentality sample” in conversation with Sky Sports before moving to Chelsea.
“He is so driven,” he added. “He has such a clear vision of what he wants to do and he is willing to use the work.” After all, this is a young player who chose to leave the Academy of Tottenham for PSV at the age of only 16 in the interest of self -improvement.
Another coach who collaborated with Madueke in the youth teams of England, describes him in similar terms when he is asked by Sky Sports and says he is a “beautiful boy” who is “driven to succeed and a determination”, and who “listens to the advice of his coaches.”
The same sentiment came in May last year, when, after a victory in Tottenham in the Press Room in Stamford Bridge, Madueke came for his “incredible” defensive work in helping Rookie Full-back Alfie Gilchrist Deal with Hung-Min Son.
For Arteta, the hope is that he can form Madueke in the player he needs, whether it is on the right or left.
But it has not escaped that it is a risky movement for the price. The doubts of supporters are understandable at some levels. Madueke is not an obvious upgrade on both flanks. However, he has exciting aids to work with and, at the age of 23, potential to be tapped on.