‘If I’m being brutally honest’… Pundit says £30m Arsenal player has proven him completely wrong

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Martin Odegaard is undoubtedly one of Arsenal’s best players these days.

He’s the club captain, he was one of their top scorers last season and he’s always one of the first names on the teamsheet when he’s fit.

However, Odegaard wasn’t always held in such high regard.

Indeed, when the Norwegian first joined Arsenal, there were serious questions around his ability as he failed to really shine during that initial loan spell in the back end of the 2020/21 season.

Speaking on the Handbrake Off Podcast, Adrian Clarke has been very open about the fact he didn’t rate Odegaard all that highly at the time, claiming that he never expected the midfielder to be as good as he is today.

Odegaard proved Clarke wrong

The pundit spoke highly of the £30m midfielder.

“it’s been a rapid improvement in his game. He’s twice the player now that he was in that loan spell, as we’ve seen, he’s someone who thrives off noise, he’s always trying to drum up more,” Clarke said.

“He’s a class player, and I doth my cap to the people who recruited him because I wasn’t quite seeing what he has become if I’m being brutally honest, but I’m delighted to have been proven wrong.”

Difficult start

It has to be said that Odegaard had a rather difficult start to life at Arsenal, but we can’t really blame him.

His confidence was, understandably, at a low after spending plenty of time out of the picture at Real Madrid, and he came to England halfway through a season where no fans were in the crowd and he couldn’t settle as a new signing usually would.

Odegaard would, of course, grow and grow in confidence and stature, and now, he’s not only one of the best players at Arsenal, he’s also one of the biggest leaders at the club.