The Eddie Nketiah Story

Get up, reset, go again!

After an insane transfer window that raised questions about whether the Premiership has now fully detached from the real world, a set of allegations that challenge whether football is a sport or a spectacle, and a weekend where points were bullied out of Arsenal’s hands, then kindly handed back again, I thought I’d focus on a player who’s had his feet firmly on the ground from the beginning. Enjoy.

It’s a tough world out there. Since the dawn of time we’ve been preparing and equipping ourselves for whatever may be lurking beyond the firelight, struggling to survive and to just keep on keeping on. Every culture has stories about tenacity, dedication and determination. Parents implore their kids to never give up, they preach that doubt is a killer and to always, always believe in themselves. Teachers celebrate Edison unearthing a thousand ways to not invent the lightbulb before finally illuminating the world. Endurance and perseverance are moral touchstones and these tales of pluck and guts weave through our cultures like an invisible arm around the shoulder of every struggling kid, every doubtful teenager and every exhausted adult.

Naturally, these stories are a tug of war between fiction and fact. In our current climate of enormous inequality, there’s no amount of hard work that can redress the outrageously unfair starting positions some endure. There are those for whom no amount of struggle can free them from the tyranny of others. And yet, there are some winners whose journey to the podium seems to encourage and persuade us that we too, through nothing more than our own blood sweat and tears, can triumph against any odds.

Well, now we’ve got a new tale of effort and struggle to admire, a saga of a kid who bested his naysayers over and over again. A kid who wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. A kid who’s own private goals have publicly transformed into the celebrated goals of every Arsenal fan across the globe. Now we’ve got the The Eddie Nketiah Story!

Of course, like any good story, The Eddie Nketiah Story is brimming with conflict, contradiction and resolution. His youthful scoring record roared past Shearer’s and already his senior goal numbers have put the likes of Anelka, Rosicky, Cazorla, Reyes (fondly remembered) and Kanu in his rear view mirror. But even after these record breaking performances, there are eyebrows being raised, chins being rubbed. Nketiah has spent a childhood ignoring No Ball Games signs in Deptford and still he’s having to persuade people to let him play. But Eddie isn’t one to accept prohibitions, he’s deaf to the doubters. Eddie’s a firm believer and he’s 100% focused on his destination.

Arsenal are playing with a never-give-up attitude this season, and in Eddie Nketiah we’ve got a player for whom that’s a been a lifelong mantra. Eddie’s passion for football was ignited in the cages of South London but he needed more than just passion. The endless list of his football infatuated peers who’ve been left on the pitch side is testament to the fact that in some endeavors you need more than love alone. At 14, when Chelsea released him, Nketiah experienced his first broken heart, his first identity crisis, his first realisation that being talked about as That Kid just ain’t enough.

And isn’t that the way? Sometimes no matter what you do the world seems to perpetually conspire against you. Eddie outscored everyone and still people question his prowess. He broke all the records and still people wonder if he’s got what it takes. What is it about Nketiah that keeps ambivalent armchair experts uncomfortable while Ian Wright (Wright Wright) and Mikel Arteta recline in supportive certainty? What are they seeing others are blind to?

For my part, I detect something delicate in the unbreakable Eddie Nketiah, a gentleness that reveals a partially introverted nature. There’s something quiet about him, something that can seem slightly passive, as if he’s just passing through the six yard box on his way somewhere else, an extra without a real role in this football scene. It’s ridiculous considering his incredible record, but defenders seem to forget about him as they bask in their relief that Gabriel Jesus has left the stage. By the time they realise Nketiah’s in the room they’re already deep in trouble (sorry, couldn’t resist that).

The mistake defenders are making is forgetting that old phrase “still rivers run deep”. There’s so much emphasis on superficiality these days, as if all you need is a brilliant sales pitch for a crappy product and you’re made. Facades are so thin that people forget there’s a deep underlying structure to reality. Nketiah is the opposite of this facile window dressing, he’s a carefully crafted old-fashioned hand-made striker from a family firm and its taken a million hours to slowly build him.

Eddie’s unruffled wry smile at goal mouth misses can unsettle fans brought up on a news-feed of extravagant tantrums and theatrical posturing. There’s no entitled dramatics with Eddie, no signalling the outrage of it all. Instead he gets up, resets and goes again. Eddie the Engine drags himself over the mountain with nothing more than shrug and an internal “I think I can, I know I can!” If you’ve spend a lifetime getting back on your feet, then each time you fall, you can learn and you can grow and every setback can be taken gracefully as you ready yourself to go again.

This cool deliberate attitude baffles many. Players and fans alike project so much onto a kid they think they already know, that they forget to actually pay attention and miss the fact that Eddie’s already accelerated onto a whole new level. While they’re not bothering to read him, he’s busy reading the game, spinning on the shoulder, ghosting into space and pouncing on beautifully timed through balls or snatching goals from the feet of dawdling defenders. Holy smoke, Eddie‘s even managed to bulk up from average guy to Mini-Hulk without anyone even registering. Come on, what’s a guy gotta do to get noticed around here?!

We’ve had a conveyor belt of luxury items at Arsenal, players who’ve bossed on the pitch straight away. Even the ones that took a few games, only took a few games. The oft-cited slow countdown it took for Bergkamp, Henry or Pires to blast off from the platform of expectation into the stratosphere of unbelievable players shows what an embarrassment of riches we’ve enjoyed. Even the academy has been delivering fully assembled superstars, players like Saka and ESR (and probably Patino), who’ve burst onto the pitch to instant acclaim. So waiting patiently for a developing player to slowly mature to full potential in our world of expected instant gratification can be, let’s say, a challenge.

But time and time again Eddie has shown he’s worth the wait. He’s the walking embodiment of a working class hero (and man, we need more of those!) where nothing comes served up on a silver platter, everything’s the result of blood, sweat and tears. Life is hard, it can be a struggle, and there are times when we all need to, in Nketiah’s own words, “wake up and stop feeling sorry for ourselves” but there’s something in Eddie’s attitude that sidesteps mere reproach, that offers hope, something about his steely refusal to give up that’s infectious. When Arteta said “the journey is the destination,” I bet Eddie’s eyes lit up because he knew exactly what Mikel was talking about.

I guess in the end, The Eddie Nketiah Story cautions me to be patient, to pay attention, to not be so quick to judge, to have a little humility and a little faith. Eddie reminds me of how I want the football world to actually be. Surely no one really wants football to be a plaything for impatient billionaires where players are bought and sold at increasingly insane prices. No one wants a factory of over-privileged entitlement where clubs, agents and media stoke up such wild-eyed craving that new kids on the block cost 100 million quid and bronze medal Ballon D'or players are seen as a disaster. Less of this bonfire of the senses, and more of the quiet stoical beauty of a kid perpetually proving himself as he slowly journeys toward footballing brilliance.

So, I at least am taking a leaf out of The Eddie Nketiah Story and remembering that the game isn’t really over until I’ve given up trying, and when life knocks me down, I’m getting up gracefully, brushing myself off and going again. And who knows, maybe I’ll reach one of my goals along the way.

Have a great week Gunners and don’t forget to subscribe and share the joy by sharing Arsenal Wonderland.