Nwakali has learnt his lessons from stay with Arsenal, says Amuneke

Former Nigeria and FC Barcelona star, Emmanuel Amuneke, says Kelechi Nwakali will have learnt lessons from his time at Arsenal FC, reports africanfootball.com.

The young midfielder was snapped up by the English giants after he led Nigeria to the 2015 FIFA Under-17 World Cup triumph in Chile as team captain.

Nwakali walked away with the Golden Ball award as the best player in the tournament and much was expected from him when he joined the Gunners in 2016.

However, the gifted player failed to break into Arsenal’s first team and he spent some time on loan at Dutch clubs MVV Maastricht and VVV Venlo, before being sold to Spanish side SD Huesca in 2019.

“I think Kelechi is a gifted player with the quality he has but, of course, after the World Cup,” Amuneke told Brila FM.

“He was signed by Arsenal and everybody believed that with his quality and the Arsenal kind of football, he would find a way. But unfortunately, things didn’t work out the way people expected.

“It’s a kind of lesson to him because when success comes a lot of people come around, including those with good intentions and bad intentions,” the retired striker added.

“Everybody comes with different ideas, but if you are not able to sit down and analyse things at the end of the day, you will be jumping from one direction to another.”

Nwakali made only five appearances for Huesca in the Spanish second tier, Segunda Liga during the 2019/20 season, which saw the team win the title and secure promotion to the elite league, La Liga.

The 22-year-old will be hoping to get more regular game time in the new 2020/21 La Liga campaign.