Jamie Carragher has apologised for undervaluing Arsenal’s summer move for Eberechi Eze.
Eze joined Arsenal from Crystal Palace in a deal that could be worth £67.5million during the latter stages of the summer transfer window.
The England midfielder was one of eight new arrivals at the Emirates Stadium in the summer as Mikel Arteta bolstered his squad heavily in the hope of ending the Gunners’ long wait for a major trophy.
After a steady start to life as an Arsenal player, Eze officially announced himself with a stunning hat-trick in Sunday’s dominant north London derby win over Tottenham.
Speaking on Sky Sports afterwards, Carragher admitted that he did not expect Eze to have such a key role for Arsenal when comparing all the deals.
Carragher said: “I must be honest, I think in the summer when Arsenal signed and I had my Liverpool hat on and I looked at the signings Arsenal made and besides [Victor] Gyokeres, it felt a lot of them were to strengthen the squad really.
“So where Arsenal had problems the year before was when Saka was out, so they bought Madueke.
“Odegaard was out, they got Eze. One of the centre backs was missing so they got another couple of centre backs.
“It was only really Gyokeres you felt was going to go into the team and if I’m being honest, I think if Havertz was 100 per cent fit, Havertz would have probably been the centre forward in this team.
“So when Eze came in, I thought ‘ok maybe it’s not a gamechanger’ and Les knows him a lot better than me and he still said earlier in the show that there’s still more to come.
“But we are still seeing some of his highlights this season, a few great goals in there and then he goes and a hat-trick.
“So, apologies. I’ve certainly undervalued the importance of that signing because he looks like he could make the real difference for Arsenal this season and going on to win the title.”
