Imagine for a moment that you are an Arsenal player. But not just any Arsenal player. You have been at the club since you were a child, coming up through the academy and eventually earning a place in the senior team. As an Arsenal fan yourself, you have worked and toiled in the hopes of getting a chance to show what you can do.
That chance finally came and you delivered, thoroughly outperforming the starter you replaced and demonstrating improvements in your game. The club give you a new, lucrative contract and promise you an accordingly significant role. To cap it all off, Arsenal reward your efforts with a new shirt number — one worn by perhaps the club’s greatest-ever legend.
But, as always tends to be the case in the age of social media, people wish to rain on your parade. Tweets pour in complaining about your extension announcement, particularly your new number. Hundreds of people flood your mentions and exclaim that you don’t deserve such an exalted shirt. On perhaps the best day of your career, Arsenal fans tell you that you are sullying the legacy of an all-time great.
That is the situation Eddie Nketiah was forced to contend with last week. After coming in for Alexandre Lacazette and scoring more Premier League goals in nine matches than the Frenchman achieved in 30, the young English striker saw his efforts honored with an extension and the #14 shirt that Thierry Henry once wore. Most were content to see it go to England’s U21 record goalscorer. But others treated the move as sacrilege.
Nevermind that since Henry left, Arsenal have given the number to Theo Walcott and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Forget that Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe received the #7 and #10 shirts respectively in the recent past. Because Nketiah did not experience the meteoric rise his fellow Hale End graduates in the squad have, a lot of Arsenal fans seem to discount his improvement. As a result, many took it upon themselves to try to directly inform the forward that he is unworthy.
Thankfully, Eddie had backup. Gabriel tweeted, “how can you be so ungrateful! OMG” in response to the backlash. Club legend Ian Wright responded directly to a fan on Instagram with a scathing rebuke. The majority of the Arsenal faithful reacted supportively to the news.
What most certainly seems to be the case here is that many Gooners cherish shirt numbers more than those working in football do. While Twitter behavior would have you believe that certain numbers should be retired, that simply isn’t practical in the professional game. Almost every club sports legends that wore famous numbers like 1, 3, 7, 9, or 10. Preventing players from wearing those shirts simply because they used to rest on the backs of better footballers is illogical and unsustainable. It discourages footballers by sending the message that they’ll never achieve their predecessors’ feats. It also eventually leads to players wearing kit numbers like #43 or #58, which is rather silly.
Contrary to what the naysayers think, what Arsenal have done recently with kit numbers is quite savvy. Giving Saka, Smith Rowe, and Nketiah numbers with so much history behind them is not only a reward for becoming important first team players. It is also a challenge to them to strive toward that level of greatness. Those numbers set a bar for current Arsenal players to meet. This definitely provides more motivation than locking away specific numbers and telling Gunners they’ll likely never be worthy of them.
So now, Arsenal have dared Nketiah to keep improving. He has two talented servants of the club in Walcott and Aubameyang to match, and an undisputed titan in Henry to aspire to. For a player like Nketiah, who once stated, “A lot of people think it only took me 15 seconds to score for Arsenal, but I’ve been working on it my whole life,” that should prove to be substantial motivation. Such a mandate should light a fire in his belly more intense than the club telling him to know his place and hold on to #30 ever would.
Yes, it is unlikely that Nketiah will go on to become as good as Henry was. But it is far from impossible. After all, the new No. 14 has surprised us before. He scored 15 seconds into his senior debut for Arsenal. He notched a double away to Chelsea, the club that released him when he was nine years old. He showcased linkup play that adequately replaced Lacazette’s to end this season. Nketiah has demonstrated that we should doubt him at our own risk.
So before diving into his mentions to say something unnecessary, give Nketiah a chance to show what he can do with his new number. Wait and see how he fares with this next chapter in his Arsenal career. As Wrighty implored last week, why not say nothing if you currently have nothing positive to say? For if Nketiah does add to the legacy of the #14 shirt, Arsenal can only benefit from it.
If you enjoyed this article, follow me on Twitter @dopegooner.
