street end
Player Valuation: £15m
Another who played well tonight, good movement etc for 2nd goal
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Pete Campbell
Player Valuation: £2.5m
Thought he was fantastic tonight
TheBigIguana
Player Valuation: £90m
It only took 6 weeks for him to make 80% of the forum look silly. Well in Alex.
Now he needs to start every game when fit. Bernard and Gylfi aren't half of what he is for the team.
Now he needs to start every game when fit. Bernard and Gylfi aren't half of what he is for the team.
Please come off Twitter.
Zatara
Player Valuation: £90m
And people questioned my wisdom saying he was best in the Central role.
As did i....
Thought you were just on about Zaha? Iwobi's the ball carrier who arsenal fans said looks better centrally.
It can be as bad on here tbh.
billyblue80
Player Valuation: £70m
Worth a go he has more drive and suits our style better than Gylfi at ten
Kaiser Soysauce
Player Valuation: £10m
summerisle
The rain, it raineth every day
Deadline day was crazy – I was stuck on a boat in Dubai when Everton rang
Deadline day and Alex Iwobi found himself all at sea. Everton had submitted a second bid to Arsenal for the attacking midfielder but weighing up whether to leave his boyhood club suddenly became the least of his issues.Iwobi, who was supposed to be on a relaxing break after Nigeria’s Africa Cup of N
www.thetimes.co.uk
Deadline day was crazy – I was stuck on a boat in Dubai when Everton rang
Alex Iwobi tells Paul Joyce about his madcap rush back to shore to seal unlikely Everton switch on transfer deadline day
Paul Joyce, Northern Football Correspondent
September 28 2019, 12:01am, The Times
Iwobi has had to adjust to a different style of play but has scored twice while claiming an assist BRADLEY ORMESHER/THE TIMES
Deadline day and Alex Iwobi found himself all at sea. Everton had submitted a second bid to Arsenal for the attacking midfielder but weighing up whether to leave his boyhood club suddenly became the least of his issues.
Iwobi, who was supposed to be on a relaxing break after Nigeria’s Africa Cup of Nations campaign, was on a boat trip in Dubai when he took a call from his agent. “I thought the deal was off,” he says. “Then, my agent was calling me, ‘Alex, they are going to put in another bid. What do you think? I need to know asap.’ ”
He was in two minds as he discussed his options with his father, Chuka — “he is saying one thing, I’m saying another” — when Marco Silva, the Everton manager, called to lay out his Goodison Park vision.
If he was relieved to get reception on his phone, that was not the end of his problems. “Bear in mind I am still on the boat, so I have to tell the driver to turn around,” Iwobi says. “He couldn’t speak English, so it was tough trying to get him to go back to our hotel in order to sign the papers. He was zooming [back to shore].”
Everton, who had targeted Crystal Palace’s Wilfried Zaha but would not meet a reputed £80 million asking price, submitted a deal sheet to the Premier League before the 5pm cut-off, granting them an extra two hours to conclude negotiations. The frenzy continued as medical records were exchanged and contracts on a £30 million transfer signed.
“Everything was getting sent to the hotel,” Iwobi says. “I was having to sign stuff and scan it back. Wait. Get something back again. The people in the hotel had no idea what was going on. They recognised me as an Arsenal player and they’re saying, ‘How’s Arsenal? How’s everything going there?’ And I am signing these papers trying to leave. That day was so crazy.”
Given that Everton have endured a difficult start to the season, with three defeats in four league games before Manchester City’s visit this evening, Iwobi would be forgiven second thoughts, but he is happy with his choice.
If he says he was “comfortable” at Arsenal, that refers mainly to his personal circumstances. Having grown up in London, he had to decide whether he was ready to leave home. Certainly, little about life at the Emirates had been tranquil in recent seasons amid the high expectation and undercurrent of tension.
The 23-year-old, who joined Arsenal aged eight, sees parallels between that and the situation at Everton — Silva last week said it was easy to create a “crisis” at the club — but is prepared to meet the challenge.
“That just comes with football,” he says with a shrug of his shoulders. “As a player you should expect that. If we don’t do well we are all disappointed. When you are a youngster there is leeway, but I have had that youngster tag for three years now and I have had to grow up.
“When I am not delivering the stats [Alexandre] Lacazette or [Pierre-Emerick] Aubameyang are delivering, there was a bit of, ‘Is he good enough to be an Arsenal player?’
“I don’t blame them. They [the supporters] set high standards and since the Invincible team they are always going to have them.”
Perhaps Iwobi’s early performances for Arsenal inflated expectations. The interview stops, briefly, as he watches a clip on a laptop that shows him streaking clear at Goodison Park and scoring at the Gwladys Street End.
It is a scene he hopes will be recreated over the coming months, but this original image is from March 2016, when Iwobi, 19 at the time, scored in a 2-0 victory over Everton on his full Premier League debut.
Three days earlier, he had started in a 3-1 Champions League defeat by Barcelona in the Nou Camp. Dreams were becoming reality.
“That was a mad experience,” he says. “I stood next to Messi, [Luis] Suárez and Neymar and I thought, ‘Wow.’ I know I shouldn’t be saying this, but even though we lost, it felt like I had won.
“They all scored. You grow up watching them and you are at home, playing Fifa [on the computer]. I am using Barcelona to destroy my friends. I am mucking around with those three up front. So when I am standing next to them on the pitch, I was like, ‘Woah!’ Next game, Everton, I thought, ‘I’m going to be a sub,’ but I started. I scored my first Premier League goal and I didn’t know what to do.
“Basically, I was a Gunner so I did a gun [motion] and showed my number. The away section was far away so I thought I am going to have to celebrate in front of the Everton fans. It felt weird. Welbs [Danny Welbeck] was jumping on me, breaking my neck.
“When we got back in the changing rooms I was messaging my family. My mum and my sister sent lots of messages, but my dad sent one long text. Just saying he was proud. That he can’t believe his son has scored.
“The train journey home felt so long because I just wanted to get back. I was having phone calls from my friends, everyone, saying, ‘Do you know what you have just done? You are a baller.’
“Then, eventually, I got home. My family likes to dance and the way my mum [Patience] and sister [Marie] were dancing . . . my dad was giving me high fives. I just wanted to share that journey with them.”
Iwobi already had plenty to live up to given his uncle is Jay-Jay Okocha, the former Bolton Wanderers and Nigeria star. So did that early burst of promise become a burden? “I didn’t feel weighed down,” he said. “I have achieved quite a lot, but I wouldn’t know where I should be.”
With hindsight, it is too early to gauge whether potential has been fulfilled. Last season was his best in terms of league goals and assists with three and six, but Silva is demanding more. Two goals and an assist thus far suggests the pupil, who has been deployed on the left flank and at No 10, is listening, especially as raiding into the penalty area is not natural for him.
“I like to get involved in the build-up as much as I can, so I probably forget to be the player finishing moves off. Now I have to get involved. I need to try and get a goal. It is a challenge and it is something we have worked on in training.
“The manager is very demanding. It is similar to Arsenal when I was with [Arsène] Wenger or Unai [Emery]. They are managers who know what they want and are very ambitious. It hasn’t been a great start, but he knows, and we feel, we can do well this season.”
Before Iwobi, who is engaging, glass-half-full company, leaves, there is time for one more story. “I would like to give credit to Arsenal because they have helped me to be the man I am today,” he said. “They teach you how to be professional off the pitch. They always like to look at the worst-case scenario and what if you don’t make it and, for example, have an injury.
“When I was a scholar, they gave us the opportunity to do our coaching badges. But I failed mine because the kids didn’t listen to me. I was trying to coach them, but there is always one that wants to be a show-off. I used to be that kid. I used to try and impress, so I found it hard to tell him not to do that because he wanted to express himself. That cost me.’
“It’s not put me off doing them again, but it is not my main focus.”
For now that is scoring, or assisting, goals and helping Everton to beat the champions.
Baines' left foot
Player Valuation: £90m
I bet you’re the cock of your local pub. Can we have a bit of respect for the football guru over here please.And people questioned my wisdom saying he was best in the Central role.
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