When David Ornstein confirmed that Arsenal have had a £72m bid for Lille winger Nicolas Pepe accepted he was lauded by many Arsenal fans. However, when he broke the news of highly-rated youngster Xavier Amaechi departing the Gunners to move to Hamburg he brought a lot of Arsenal fans crashing down to earth.
Amaechi moved to Hamburg on a four-year contract as part of a deal worth £2.25m. The youngster turned down various clubs including Barcelona and Bayern Munich to head to the second tier of Germany in search of first-team football.
The 18-year-old had yet to make his competitive first-team debut at the Emirates, playing 39 times for the club’s youth teams. In those 39 appearances, he scored 12 goals and registered nine assists.
A lot of Arsenal fans were gutted at the news, saying Ornstein had ruined their day. Some Arsenal fans were quick to assume Amaechi would end up at Bayern within a year, similar to former Arsenal winger Serge Gnabry.
Here is the best of the reaction.
Highly-rated Arsenal & England youth winger Xavier Amaechi has joined Hamburg. 18yo rejected new contract + numerous suitors to sign 4yr deal today. Fee over €2.5m + performance-related add-ons. No buy-back but #AFC have sell-on clause. Will wear 17 & be a 1st team regular #HSV
— David Ornstein (@David_Ornstein) July 27, 2019
So definitely going to Bayern in a year
— Abdulkadir (@abdukadirabdi) July 27, 2019
Way to ruin an excellent day.
— ❄ (was @AmaechiSZN) (@afcXav) July 27, 2019
What a way to ruin such a great day, hope ur happy with urself orny
— hasan (@younghn3) July 27, 2019
We’re going to regret this when he inevitably joins Bayern and becomes world class ffs
— Tayyab Hussain (@Tayyab_402) July 27, 2019
Using that money to seal the Tierney deal. pic.twitter.com/6TY4ORKuJX
— Apathetic Arsene (@NotSpendFC) July 27, 2019
ORNSTEIN THIS IS SAD NEWS BUT I FORGIVE YOU BECAUSE OF YOUR PEPE NEWS.
— W ????⚪️ / ???????????????????????????????????? (@Wayne_Writes) July 27, 2019
100% sell on clause ???? pic.twitter.com/JUmaxveWxb
— Panther ????☘️ (@ArsenalPanthers) July 27, 2019
Yikes. Hopefully not a Gnabry 2.0
— ???????? (@OohTorreira) July 27, 2019