He was bought to fight for first choice. Many believed he was good for it. He's not at the moment, but I still can't see why it is so obviously a ridiculous call.
And mostly - I can't see how Akpom's development is linked with it. If and when Akpom does come good - and by that I mean become clearly a better striker than Welbeck - then the situation will be a new one (we'd probably want to ditch Welbeck). But Akpom even now is just beginning to show he has enough gamble on him making it. He is still "one for the future". It certainly couldn't have been a serious factor at the beginning of the season - he's showed nothing remotely close to putting him at that category (first team spot) at the time.
We were screaming for a striker in the summer. And when Giroud was out, it was a no brainer. Want to talk about Welbeck vs Cavani (and such - that's one thing. But the Welbeck vs Akpom talk is baseless.
(And so was Bellerin vs Debuchy, as I was saying earlier).
If a youth player makes the grade - it's great news. But you really can't build your team on that. It's just not serious, and would be (rightly) criticized even by all those criticizing the opposite with the benefit of hind sight.
