Eddie Nketiah has been called "daft" and "naive" for failing to complete a transfer to Crystal Palace from Arsenal.
That is the verdict from Danny Mills, who cannot understand why the forward failed to do what was best for his career and go somewhere he is likely to play more first-team football.
Mikel Arteta was looking to offload a number of players at the Emirates including Nketiah, who has entered the final year of his contract.
Attack is an area of concern at the Emirates but the England Under-21 international has failed to kick on despite his early promise.
It has left him behind Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette and new hotshot Folarin Balogun in the pecking order.
Yet there was interest in his services from Crystal Palace over a permanent signing in the summer that dragged on until Deadline Day.
Ultimately, the Eagles could not strike a deal and they moved quickly for Odsonne Edouard, who joined from Celtic for around £14m.
It means Nketiah remains at Arsenal where he looks set to stay until the end of the season before his contract expires.
However, talkSPORT report that the problems lied with the striker who failed to lower his wage demands to leave for Selhurst Park.
What the season has in store for the 22-year-old remains to be seen but Mills has blasted the youngster for not departing.
“He’s daft, that’s what it is,” said the former England defender.
“He’s being badly advised. Sometimes you have to take a step backwards to take two steps forwards.
“You have to back yourself and say: ‘You know what, it’s not really what I want right now, I might have to take a little bit of a cut, but I’m going to go there.
“‘I’m going to go there and score goals, I’m going to show how good I am and then the season after that or the season after that, everyone is going to be coming in after me because I’ve scored 15, 20 goals in the Premier League.
“‘And then Palace aren’t going to be able to keep hold of me because there will be too many clubs in for me’.
“I think that’s very naive, because what will happen is you’ll have this season where you will do absolutely nothing, you end up on a free transfer and everyone is going, ‘well, you’ve not played for a year, you don’t really know what you’re doing’.
“You’re always best to go out and play, no matter what.”
