02 Sep 2026 18:21:44
Young Obi off to Willem II on a season-long loan. Good move for him I think and hopefully it helps his development toward our first team.
03 Sep 2026 00:38:02
Would have preferred to see him go to a Championship club, but trust that the club has done their research into where's best to send him.
03 Sep 2026 08:01:12
Having seen where he is at, they may have struggled to get him in at a reasonable level in the UK.
03 Sep 2026 08:09:04
In theory, going to the Championship would be better, as it's probably the best league to prepare a player for the EPL. However, that only works if he plays regularly, and given the level of competition in the Championship, the position he plays, and where he is currently in his development, I would worry that his game time might end up fairly limited in the Championship.
His problem is that he developed physically much younger than his peers, which led to him relying too heavily on his physical talents at youth level.
When he stepped into the first team against physically mature athletes, he started to struggle.
Going to the Championship is normally a good place to prepare players for the EPL because it's similarly physical. But that isn't the side of Chido Obi's game that needs developing. It's his technical skills that are lacking. Going abroad to a league that focuses much more on technical skills, hopefully to a club where he'll get a good amount of minutes, will hopefully be the move that helps round out the areas he is lacking currently.
03 Sep 2026 21:23:09
It's not just that he hasn't developed his game at all. Flat track bully was how he's been described internally, so not only did he rely on physicality, which is now exposed, his touch, passing, positioning, and his ability to make space and shoot are very underdeveloped.
Still, plenty of time, but he has an awful lot of progress to make before he is even Championship ready.