‘On his own’: Troy Deeney says £30m Arsenal player is more impressive than Saka during warm-ups

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Arsenal have a number of big name players who attract attention in the first-team right now, for differing reasons.

Bukayo Saka is the star man for the Gunners. William Saliba is a Rolls-Royce in defence. While new £100m signing Declan Rice is an obvious focal point for supporters.

However, while the aforementioned Saka is a star attraction for a lot of people, former Premier League striker Troy Deeney says that in his opinion, Martin Odegaard is one that needs watching closer.

Troy Deeney says he watches Martin Odegaard warm up for Arsenal

Speaking in an interview for The Telegraph, Deeney was talking about his coaching career and how he looks at everything he can for inspiration.

And when speaking about little details that players do to be the best, Deeney told the story of how his kids watched Bukayo Saka fire in shots during an Arsenal warm-up, while Deeney himself was fixated on Martin Odegaard.

The Telegraph writes that ‘while they intently watch Bukayo Saka scoring in the warm-up, he studies Martin Odegaard’.

“I watch the warm-ups intensely. Everything is game-specific and it was him on his own for five minutes. And I am going to my kids, ‘are you watching this?’ and they are like, ‘sure Dad, but Saka is scoring goals over there’,” he says.

Odegaard was made captain by Mikel Arteta at Arsenal and Deeney’s comments here, coupled with some previous pieces of information on his standards, suggest it was a smart decision.

A top player and professional

It’s quite easy to see from looking in from the outside actually how Odegaard operates. He is clearly a man who is a stickler for the details in the game and it shows.

Deeney’s observation on his warm up here are interesting. Yes, we all like to see who can score in training or warm-up drills.

But the reality is that there is so much more to the game and it seems Deeney has caught Odegaard in his element here.

Certainly, it seems obvious why he was made captain at The Emirates.