Wenger tips Nigeria’s Akpom for striker's role

Arsene Wenger believes that young Nigerian striker, Chuba Akpom has all of the raw qualities to be a major player for Arsenal in the near future as the Gunners continue to be linked with several high profile forwards.

Arsenal are currently attempting to persuade Liverpool to part with Luis Suarez, while there is also believed to be interest in Real Madrid’s Gonzalo Higuain and Manchester United forward Wayne Rooney.

The Gunners are determined to launch a serious title challenge next season and a world class striker is high on the priority list.

While the club’s officials continue to work on a deal for Suarez, Wenger has handed a chance to 17 year old Akpom during pre-season and the youngster has suitably impressed with some powerful displays. He scored one in the 7-0 victory over an Indonesia XI and then grabbed a brace in the 7-1 win against Vietnam earlier this week.

Arsenal have often loaned out a number of their young players but it seems Wenger is prepared to keep Akpom at the club as he believes he has all the right qualities to become a first team player.

“Players like Chuba Akpom have done very well again. As you said, we score goals – that is the result of our good team play, of our creativity and our pace in the game. We have a lot of pacy players and that creates a lot of danger,” said Wenger after the victory against Vietnam. “It’s difficult to say because you do not want to fix a limit when a player is a striker. If he was a centre back, I would say to let him go out on loan and play somewhere.

“When you are a striker, the mistakes you make are not costly for the team but the talent you have can be very helpful. It looks like he has the physical strength and the technical quality to compete so for him it’s just down to mental belief now and these kind of games will help him.”