Arsenal have had quite a few players leave the club as free agents in recent years.
When Mikel Arteta first arrived to become the Gunners boss, there were many who didn’t deserve to stay at the club. The Spaniard, along with the then technical director Edu Gaspar, worked really hard to get a few of them out.
Arsenal had to terminate some players’ contracts – like Mesut Ozil, Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – while the likes of Alexandre Lacazette, Cedric Soares and Mohamed Elneny left on free transfers at the end of their contracts.
The North Londoners have lost a few hugely talented young players for little or no money as well over the last few transfer windows.
Rio Ferdinand has had his say on two of them.
Rio Ferdinand shares Chido Obi and Ayden Heaven verdicts after their Arsenal exits
Arsenal’s Academy has been producing incredible young players for several years now.
Bukayo Saka has become the biggest superstar of them all, but the likes of Emile Smith Rowe, Folarin Balogun and Mika Biereth are all making a great name for themselves.
A few younger players have been incredible too.
Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly are still with Arsenal and are both incredible, but the likes of Chido Obi, Ayden Heaven and Reuell Walters all left the club.
Arsenal tried really hard to keep the youngster and even offered him a big deal. But, Chido turned that down and agreed to join Manchester United on a free transfer after they gave him a more lucrative contract.
Ferdinand admitted that he hasn’t seen a lot of Heaven, but he raved about Chido – a player he thinks would be playing under Arteta at Arsenal right now if he hadn’t left.
He said in a video on his YouTube channel: “You’ve got Lewis-Skelly, Nwaneri and Max Dowman. And you lost Chido Obi. And Heaven as well. I haven’t see enough of Heaven yet to really put him in that bracket. But, those four, because I’ve seen a lot of Chido.
“Chido would be playing in your team now. He should be playing at Man United now.”
Chido Obi must have had mixed emotions about Arsenal recently
It was really strange for some Arsenal fans to see Chido leave Arsenal for Manchester United.
The pathway to the first team at the Emirates Stadium was a lot more straightforward, while at United, he was behind Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee, who were both signed not too long ago.
After failing to make a senior appearance in his first few months, Chido must have been thinking about his decision to join Manchester United because Arsenal saw both Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz suffer season-ending injuries.
As Ferdinand said above, Chido would’ve definitely been playing under Arteta right now had he stayed.
However, the teenager did make his Manchester United debut in their loss against Tottenham recently, and he could get more chances now because of their injury issues.
Only time will tell if Chido was right to leave Arsenal for Manchester United.
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