Eberechi Eze has never been shy admitting he was close to becoming a Spurs player this summer before Arsenal called at the eleventh hour. Andrea Berta’s recruitment policy is to talk to various targets on his shortlist and gain as much information as possible. Our Director of Football quickly learnt that returning to the club was the midfielder’s preference.
The twenty seven year old told his agent a return to where he was part of our academy was his first choice, but equally he was not going to wait and put his career on hold. If Spurs were willing to finalise a deal and the Gunners were not, he was not against moving to our next door neighbours. Reports vary if Mr Berta always intended to ring or if it was encouraged by another Kai Havertz injury. In the Tottenham camp they believed they were dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s, out of respect letting Crystal Palace get their European tie out of the way. They were half right. In the days that followed, Eze did move to North London, the red side.
The montage with Ian Wright that made the news official, the big smile when the man himself walked out at the Emirates to greet Gooners and everything he has said since is of a man not even trying to hide the reality, that when Spurs knock on the door you might eventually open it, but when the Arsenal knock it sounds different.
Written In The Stars
No supporter wants a player to publicly admit that their biggest rival is superior, meaning one way or the other there would be subplots in Eze’s first NLD. One way or the other it was written in the stars that someone who was so close to wearing a white shirt on Sunday would have some sort of impact. Some might be surprised that the impact was a hat trick, especially given that we have not quite seen the version of Eze we saw at Selhurst Park.
Yet the man himself had been saying this very week that even when rejected by several teams, not only did he know he would make it to the highest level, but he knew more is coming. He chooses to keep what that future looks like to himself.
That is called having faith, clearly God has influenced Eze throughout his career. That is why he is so open about negotiations in August. He is not trying to disrespect or belittle Spurs, he has simply been brought up to tell the truth.
Where other boyhood fans would be desperate to re sign for the club they grew up supporting, Eze stayed relaxed and was not going to wait around because his ethos is everything happens for a reason. If he was meant to come home then he would.
(Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)
Humble Confidence
He is confident enough to know he belongs on this stage, but humble enough to keep that to himself.
Mr Wright asked Eze a few months ago, on the Arsenal Youtube channel:
‘Do you want to create
Do you want to excite
Do you want to raise levels
Raise hairs
Raise the roof
Do you want to write a legacy
Do you want to realise those dreams
Do you want the Arsenal’
Eze’s answer
‘Obviously’
You see, he could have joined Spurs where greats become heroes. Yet at Arsenal, at Arsenal, heroes become legends.
Dan Smith
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