Arsenal star admits he was close to signing for rivals

He’s enjoyed a meteoric rise into Arsenal’s first team but Alex Iwobi has now revealed that he once came close to joining London rivals West Ham United, report The Express.

The 20-year-old has started six of Arsenal’s nine Premier League fixtures so far this season but the player himself has revealed it could’ve all been very different.

Iwobi claimed: “Arsenal and West Ham were interested in me and Chuba [Akpom], so we were training with both clubs for three years, because we were scouted at six and you can’t sign until you’re nine.

“I decided to sign for Arsenal because I supported them back then and I always saw them as the bigger club – no disrespect to West Ham.”

Joining the Gunners’ youth ranks when he was still at primary school, Iwobi has just enjoyed a breakout year in which he’s also burst onto the senior international scene with Nigeria.

Earning seven caps with the Super Eagles since 2015, Iwobi is very much a star on the rise and the most successful academy graduate since Hector Bellerin’s rise into Arsene Wenger’s first team.

A mark of Iwobi’s rise is the fact he may be rested for the Gunners’ EFL Cup assignment with Reading this evening with the likes of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Lucas Perez having patiently been waiting for opportunities behind him.