{"id":566507,"date":"2020-09-19T06:48:48","date_gmt":"2020-09-19T10:48:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=566507"},"modified":"2020-12-28T11:24:27","modified_gmt":"2020-12-28T16:24:27","slug":"chuba-akpom-former-arsenal-striker-completes-middlesbrough-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/09\/19\/chuba-akpom-former-arsenal-striker-completes-middlesbrough-move\/","title":{"rendered":"Chuba Akpom: Former Arsenal Striker Completes Middlesbrough Move"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>English striker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.transfermarkt.co.uk\/chuba-akpom\/profil\/spieler\/197642\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chuba Akpom<\/a> has today completed his move to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?s=Middlesbrough\" target=\"_self\">Middlesbrough<\/a> on a permanent basis.\u00a0 The former <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/clubs\/arsenal\/\" target=\"_self\">Arsenal<\/a> teenager moves from Greek side PAOK for an undisclosed fee. He becomes the fourth summer signing at Middlesbrough after deals for <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/09\/11\/sam-morsy-completes-middlesbrough-move\/\" target=\"_self\">Sam Morsy<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/09\/08\/marcus-bettinelli-close-to-loan-move-with-middlesbrough\/\" target=\"_self\">Marcus Betinelli<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/07\/31\/grant-hall-joins-middlesbrough-after-leaving-queens-park-rangers\/\" target=\"_self\">Grant Hall<\/a> were all completed.<\/p>\n<h2>Middlesbrough Sign Chuba Akpom<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Welcome to <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Boro?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Boro<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/cakpom?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@cakpom<\/a>! \ud83d\udd34\u26aa\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/UTB?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#UTB<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Middlesbrough FC (@Boro) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Boro\/status\/1307244756188225538?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">September 19, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Impressive Spell Abroad<\/h3>\n<p>Akpom impressed within his time at PAOK, netting 18 times over a two-year spell with the club. He helped the side in achieving their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/48008126\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">first major title in 34 years<\/a> in 2019 and has continued his fine form this year, leaving his side on the brink of Champions League qualification.<\/p>\n<p>Akpom broke onto the scene graduating from Arsenal&#8217;s established academy set up, but only appeared 12 times for the first team before he was shipped out on a number of loans in search of first-team football. Seeing loans at Brentford, N0ttingham Forest, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/clubs\/brighton-hove-albion\/\" target=\"_self\">Brighton &amp; Hove Albion<\/a> and Hull City, Akpom struggled to make an impact before his permanent move to PAOK in the summer of 2018.<\/p>\n<h3>Warnock&#8217;s Thoughts.<\/h3>\n<p>Middlesbrough&#8217;s lack of depth in attack will be boosted by the arrival of Akpom as they previously only had two senior strikers. The English youngster adds much-needed competition for the season going ahead with Middlesbrough&#8217;s lack of goalscoring form &#8211; they are yet to find the net in the league this season. Warnock spoke of his delight, despite his self-isolation period due to his <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/09\/17\/middlesbrough-manager-neil-warnock-tests-positive-for-coronavirus\/\" target=\"_self\">positive COVID-19 test on Thursday<\/a>, revealing that Akpom was his top target in this summers window.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mfc.co.uk\/news\/boro-sign-striker-chuba-akpom\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Speaking to the club website, he said:<\/a> &#8220;I&#8217;m delighted to finally have got him. He&#8217;s been my number one choice. I&#8217;ve wanted him for a long time. I&#8217;d like to give a big thanks to Neil Bausor for getting it done.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Akpom will not be eligible for Middlesbrough&#8217;s fixture today due to only recently signing, but will be ready to make his debut against Queens Park Rangers next week.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"ShZ2N6R1QrtNURjuLDmG6w\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1203220968\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'ShZ2N6R1QrtNURjuLDmG6w',sig:'DAV4FDVsPDc90LQrpphi_agPX97q6f7kSl9MOa-36cw=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1203220968',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>English striker Chuba Akpom has today completed his move to Middlesbrough on a permanent basis.\u00a0 The former Arsenal teenager moves from Greek side PAOK for an undisclosed fee. He becomes the fourth summer signing at Middlesbrough after deals for Sam Morsy, Marcus Betinelli and Grant Hall were all completed. Middlesbrough Sign Chuba Akpom &nbsp; Welcome [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3641,"featured_media":566519,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,33,19,30,28],"tags":[197,6668,168,347,574,136],"class_list":["post-566507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-league-football","category-championship","category-middlesborough","category-news","category-transfers","tag-championship","tag-chuba-akpom","tag-efl","tag-middlesbrough","tag-paok","tag-world-football"],"modified_by":"Nat Goodlad, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3641"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}