Top Pundit: I don’t understand Arsenal’s interest in Noni Madueke

Former West Ham midfielder thinks that the Gunners would be better of securing the future of 18-year-old wonderkid Ethan Nwaneri than signing Chelsea winger.

It’s a transfer that seems to be gathering momentum by the day: Noni Madueke to Arsenal. With transfer Svengali’s David Ornstein and Fabrizio Romano both reporting the Gunners concrete interest in the 23-year-old England international, it appears that there’s no smoke without fire.

According to both, the Gunners have opened talks with their West London rivals and are weighing up lodging a bid having agreed contract terms with Madueke’s camp last week.

Why do Arsenal want Noni Madueke?

It’s a deal that has left a number of people scratching their heads, including former Scotland international Don Hutchison, who doesn’t see the logic in Mikel Arteta adding the winger to his Arsenal squad.

“I don’t understand this transfer. From an Arsenal point of view, he plays where Bukayo Saka does, so it’ll be tough for him to get games. The competition of course makes sense, especially if Saka is injured, but they have Ethan Nwaneri.

“His contract is running down now, and I’d have been tempted to use money earmarked for Madueke to get a deal done for Nwaneri instead. Spending £50 million on Madeuke, who hasn’t been brilliant for Chelsea, is strange,” Hutchison said in a recent interview.

The two London clubs often do transfer business

Arsenal and Chelsea have previous when it comes to player trading, and a lot reservations about this deal are based on how well some of those signings have worked out at the Emirates Stadium, something that Hutchison alluded to as he concluded: “The Raheem Sterling deal definitely didn’t work, and you worry if this is another player coming from Stamford Bridge to sit on the bench.”