When Arsenal released Eberechi Eze from their academy at the age of 13, he spent a week in his bedroom, inconsolable.
Growing up in south London, it was Eze’s dream to play for Arsenal. Being told his time with the club was over left him devastated.
“I remember crying in my room for a solid week, my mum telling me that it’s going to be OK but not being able to get over it,” Eze told The Independent in 2020. “Then I went to Fulham and I was finally starting to enjoy my football again.
“We played Arsenal a few months later but, when I went over to shake the academy manager’s hand, I started welling up. All the feelings came back.”
After bouncing around clubs during his youth career, Eze has flourished and now he could finally realise his childhood ambition of playing for Arsenal.
Standard Sport reported last week how the Gunners have added Eze to their shortlist of attacking targets this summer, as Mikel Arteta looks to bolster his squad for another title challenge.
A move for Eze would appeal to Arsenal supporters - partly because of the 27-year-old’s connection to the club, but also because of what he would bring to the side.
Martin Odegaard has had to shoulder the burden of being Arsenal’s chief playmaker, and Eze would elevate that.
There is also the exciting prospect of the pair playing together as two No8s in midfield, which could prove effective in games where Arsenal are dominating possession but struggling to break an opponent down.
A criticism of Arteta’s teams is that the attack can sometimes be too structured. Eze would change that, with his ability to play off the cuff and create something out of nothing - qualities that Arsenal lack. He is a game-breaker.
Eze is coming off the back of a brilliant season with Crystal Palace, where his output rivalled those in the Arsenal squad.
He scored eight Premier League goals, with Kai Havertz the only Arsenal player to better that tally. Eze also had eight assists in the league, with Bukayo Saka the only Arsenal player to record more.
Eze and Saka created the same number of chances, with the Palace playmaker just five short of Odegaard - who was Arsenal’s best performer in that area.
No one in the Arsenal squad had a higher xG in the Premier League than Eze, who was one of only 20 players in the whole top-flight to reach double figures for that metric.
The flamboyant playing style of Eze makes him appear to be a different profile of player to the ones Arteta has most recently preferred in the No8 position, such as Declan Rice, Havertz and Mikel Merino.
But Eze is more of an 'Arteta player' than meets the eye. Arteta is a big fan of players who have proven they can thrive in the Premier League, and he values versatility too.
Eze ticks both those boxes and, while he would most suit playing as a No8 in this Arsenal team, he could also be used on the left flank or even up top as a second striker.
Another big requirement for Arteta is that players work off the ball, and Eze is surprisingly effective in that department.
He won 157 ground duels in the Premier League last season - 13 more than anyone in the Arsenal squad managed. In fact, Eze ranked 21st in the whole Premier League when it came to ground duels won.
It is a similar story when it comes to possessions won, with Rice and William Saliba the only Arsenal players to better Eze’s tally of 146.
Arsenal signed Merino last summer because he was a 'duel monster' and, while it would be wrong to label Eze in the same way, he certainly doesn’t shirk his defensive duties.
Instead, they form part of what makes him such an attractive signing for Arsenal.
