The much talked about loan deal between Arsenal and Real Madrid has finally been concluded as Martin Odegaard has made the switch to the Emirates Stadium.Â
The 22-year old who will wear the number 11 shirt will be around till at least the end of the current campaign. He joins Dani Ceballos who has also been on a temporal deal with the club since last season.
Reports had it that the midfielder demanded a move away to enable him play more since he was not being involved as much as he wished at his parent club. It is not unusual for a player of his kind to be frustrated over just nine appearances in all competitions in about five months.
In his first Arsenal interview, Odegaard revealed that Mikel Arteta made contact with him prior to his decision to come to North London.Â
"I spoke to him (Arteta) before coming here, of course," Odegaard told Arsenal's website. "That was very important for me and he seems like a top manager and I liked his ideas, the way he sees football and also the way he is."He gave me a great feeling and that was important for me to come here. He was crucial.
"I think every time you go to a new place, you want to make sure that it feels good and that there is a plan. But I think everything here just seems good. I like the club and I always liked the way that the club wants to play. Everything about the club and now how the manager wants to play, I think it's a club that really suits me well. So I think it's a good match."Arteta had positive things to say about the Norwegian and it's vivid that it would not be long before he gets him into his starting lineup. We do not expect that to happen as soon as Saturday when Manchester United visit for a clash with Arsenal.Â
Arteta said: "It's great that we've secured Martin to come to us until the end of the season. Martin is of course a player that we all know very well and although still young, he has been playing at the top level for a while. Martin will provide us with quality offensive options and we're all excited to be integrating him into our plans between now and May."Leicester City and Real Sociedad are some of the other sides that tried to get the services of Odegaard. The latter were willing to reunite with him due to his exploits while on loan with them but Real Madrid preferred a move outside the La Liga.Â
He did so well that Madrid had to terminate his loan spell just to add him to their first team but then he could not get enough time to prove his worth, hence his transfer away from the Bernabeu.
We welcome Martin Odegaard to Arsenal and wish him all the best during his stay with us. Can't wait to see what he has in store for us. Hopefully, it will pay off.Â
0 Comments
Your comments are highly welcomed but please be informed that comments which include abusive remarks, hate speech, racial discriminatory remarks and any other form of prejudice are prohibited. Also note that comments visibility is subject to moderation so they will not show immediately.