The narrative that dominates Alex Iwobi’s career has, worryingly, not changed over the last few years with fans and pundits alike focusing on the fact that the Nigerian has yet to achieve his full potential. Whilst Iwobi and those closest to him may find the conversation repetitive, the reality is that the 26-year-old’s career has been steadily going in the wrong direction ever since Unai Emery sanctioned his departure from the Emirates Stadium in 2019.
Iwobi takes flight from the Emirates
There had, of course, been encouraging signs under the guidance of Arsene Wenger with the Frenchman offering Iwobi a contract extension in 2016 but once the 72-year-old left Arsenal, the winger’s form dipped. Perhaps this was down to a lack of confidence shown in him by Emery or a change of formation that favored the services of club-record signing Nicolas Pepe. Either way, Iwobi was shown the door.
It would, understandably, have been a bitter pill to swallow for Iwobi given that Arsenal have gone from strength to strength since and are priced at just 4/6 to qualify for the Champions League this season after a long hiatus away from Europe’s elite competition.
It’s worth saying that these odds have been sourced from the Nigerian bookmaker Bet9ja, who, as this review will illustrate, provide exclusive promotional offers for the ongoing Premier League matches which means that they always have their finger on the pulse when it comes to the goings-on in the English top-flight. Indeed, the inescapable reality is that all the latest odds point to Arsenal being on the up whilst one of their former academy products treads water.
As we now know, the Gunners’ decision to sell in 2019 meant that Everton parted with £35 million for the Nigerian’s services. On the face of it, it was an extraordinary fee to pay for a player that had endured an extended run of bad form and it’s worth mentioning that Everton have, essentially, paid £5 million per goal since Iwobi’s arrival, with this stat being accurate as of late August 2022.
With that said, you can see why Everton would have been keen to sign Iwobi given the raw potential he had at 23, and whilst £35 million speaks of the Blues’ scattergun approach in the transfer market, the Nigerian was certainly capable of legitimately fetching that fee had he hit the ground running at Goodison Park.
As we know, Iwobi struggled to find his feet, and the Toffees battled to stick with a manager and chopped and changed whilst the player tried to settle in. Indeed, Iwobi worked under interim boss Duncan Ferguson, Carlo Ancelotti, and then Rafael Benitez in the space of three years. It was, to say the least, an unsettling time with Iwobi asked to play in different systems whilst occasionally out of position. You can understand that few could see the much-spoken-about similarity between Iwobi and his uncle Jay-Jay Okocha as the player struggled for form and most importantly confidence.
Lampard jets in to Goodison
The much-needed tailwind that Iwobi needed did eventually come when Frank Lampard took over from Benitez and was asked to save Everton from relegation. The former Chelsea player got off to a mixed start in the dugout with consistency sorely missing from Everton’s early displays. With the writing seemingly on the wall for the Blues as far as relegation went, Lampard turned to a starting XI he could trust after assessing his options during his first nine games in charge.
After that, Lampard opted for what he thought was the best eleven at the club which included Iwobi, who played every minute of the final 12 games of the season as Everton narrowly avoided going down. Finally, Iwobi showed a level of maturity that hadn’t been seen before in his career as he did his best to pull his teammates out of the fire that was relegation. Furthermore, perhaps the most significant moment of Iwobi’s career came in a crunch game against Newcastle where Everton had gone down to ten men. Instead of wilting, Iwobi stepped up and scored the winning goal in the ninth minute of injury time; the Nigerian had finally come of age.
Crucially, that is largely down to the way Lampard put his complete faith in Iwobi during a time when the 43-year-old’s career was in many respects, also on the line. This show of confidence seems to have made all the difference and you could even go as far as to say that Iwobi and his new manager worked together to ensure they dramatically rescued their reputation from the flames.
