The Guardian says that all Arsenal has now is hope that Folarin Balogun will remain at the club.
The teenage striker has refused to sign a new contract with the Londoners, and he is inside the final six months of his current deal already.
Balogun has found a breakthrough into the Arsenal first-team very hard to come by despite his impressive record in their youth team.
He is behind the likes of Eddie Nketiah and Alexandre Lacazette in the pecking order, and he feels leaving the Gunners is best for him.
The club is keen to keep him and Mikel Arteta has even handed him opportunities in the Europa League.
The report says that the list of teams looking to sign him has been narrowed down to three.
The Gunners remain hopeful that he will change his mind and decide to remain with them.
One way that Arsenal can convince him to stay is to give him more chances in their first team, but the abundance of attacking talents at Arteta’s disposal will make that hard.
The report adds that Arsenal is expecting him to decide on his future in a fortnight.
Not surprised he would refuse to sign…he can’t seem to get playing time behind Laca, who should be on his way elsewhere this summer, and Eddie, who simply isn’t good enough to be an everyday starter, let alone our first option cover…maybe someday we’ll get the real story behind this seemingly poorly managed affair…I get that all professional teams encounter these types of situations, but this isn’t a one-off or a once in a blue moon gig for us, this is fast becoming our modus operandi…just think of how many times in the past couple of years we’ve witnessed incidences of gross incompetence
Hes gone!
His head has been irretrievably turned by the exploits of young English players in the Bundesliga
He would probably had watched Bellingham earlier today playing for Dortmund and wished……
But Arsenal is also a team that breeds talent. The likes of Saka, Martinelli and Smith-Rowe are on the upward climb at the club. So the young man should be properly advised, I think
I think we need to sell either eddie or lacca.
I dont feel that lacca is good enough and would be my preference. But also think it would be okay to sell eddie with a buy back clause.
Let balogan get 1 or 2 starts in the lrem see how he goes
Sounds like Arsenal aren’t giving him any real playing time until he commits to the future…seems a bit ass-backwards considering he’s out of a contract come the summer…that might have been a good plan last season, when we returned following the covid shutdown, but doing that now almost guarantees he’s moving on…either we’re a very petty organization or a stupid one…seriously, what are we doing???
đź‘Ť All those offers on the table and he’ll walk straight into a lot of those teams… I’ll be amazed if he’s still with us come next season…
Buggers up the idea of buy-back/sell-on clauses!
This issue is infuriates me a lot.
We all know that our exceptional bright talents were martinelli, balogun, saka and ESR..these kids were a level above their peers..
Saka got his opportunity and delivered, martinelli too.
It had to take the grace of God for ESR to get his opportunity, now see his impact .
Must our hands be forced all the time b4 our talented prospects get their deserved chances….the lad has shown that he is ready to step up..take him up for God sake… Even if its 10 mins cameos, give the boy a run of games..
Arteta needs to grow some balls and show he knows what he’s doing… We can’t be losing good academy graduates then continue to buy worn out old players…..look at Martinez second highest clean sheet ,guendozi bossing the midfield at Hertha..
He is as talented as saka and ESR… We have to keep him..laca and auba are not getting any younger…
I dont think you can critisize the club when as you have said, other players have been given their chance. Arsenal is and has been for some time , a club that brings through and plays its youngsters. His agency is the reason he hasn’t signed. The club, the manager and the player wants to stay. His agency doesn’t.
Arsenal should sell Nkatia and give Balogun a chance to prove him self. Players like willock, William, pape, Nketia, papa and mustapha should find their way out of the Emirate.
Give Balogun chance to prove himself .
Don’t sell him please.
I personally think Eddie will come good in time. Then Lacazette can be moved on in the summer leaving Auba & Eddie to play upfront and Martinelli & Nelson or any winger we might sign to play the left wing then Saka can easily make the right side his own with Pepe following behind.
If we need nketia, it’s not now; we can sell him with a is option to buy back and allow Flo the step up he is far better than nketia and his turn around time has showed that why wait to rue it when he comes back to hunt us Gnabry is now a hero at Bayern. Aresna board, wake up now.
This club is NOT a big club any more. There is little magnetic pull. Poor ownership, and poor management at all levels including a ‘lost’ board. That is the fundemental reality of our club. The old guard of David Dein, Danny Fiszman, and Wenger himself had love for Arsenal. They are gone, things change, but Kroenke is now Arsenal’s absent father and soul parasite. He is a vampire who has destroyed Arsenal’s heart. For Folarin Balogan the pulls elsewhere are not just about money. At the moment Arsenal is almost a corpse….lifeless football, many lifeless players. Of course Balogan wants to leave. When a team plays a thuggish, slow , mindless, creatively redundant midfielder like Xhaka, that team is stagnant. Balogan clearly know Arsenal are suffocating in their inability to change.
We lost Martinez in the last window. Macey in this window. Loosing FB in the this window shows that we are not building properly for the future.
If we have definitely lost him on a pre-contract, then why not play him till the end of his current deal. How does it hurt us?
Talk about stupid statements, Macey is 3rd choice and 26 while Martinez is 28. So much for building for the future. Leno is 28 can’t have 2 good gk the same age. Only works if Martinez was 20-21 willing to wait for his chance.
“Abundance of attacking talent at Arteta’s disposal” I think we all wished that was true!
Agreed with previous comments that he should have been given more opportunities. I think he would have stayed for sure if he got more playing time and the contract was right for him. Hope he does stay…
It just doesn’t make sense to me at all. The club won’t spend to bring in the quality of players we need. However, they also hesitate to give opportunities to up and coming players.
Saka played mostly as LWB b/c of injuries when he got his real opportunities. ESR also got his real chance due to injuries (partey) suspensions (xhaka) in midfield.
Balogun is fundamentally better than Nketiah; just watch them play. The first touch, composure, technique, and link up play is there to see.
Edie should have been loaned months ago in the Summer window. Go play regularly elsewhere, and show that you can return to Arsenal and be productive.
Balogun has 0 minutes in PL yet is deemed surplus despite Edie offering nothing during his minutes in PL.
Balogun is the better prospect; now, 2 years from now, 5 years from now even.
All this based on a rookie coach in his 1st year, evaluating talent without a resume proving he knows enough to decide.
Saliba earned MOTM in his 2nd match already; yet wasn’t deemed good enough for early Europa matches. I fear we’ll miss out again due to inexperience from the manager.
If they want him to stay they must give him gametime. Instead it is given to Eddie, who should be up for sale in the summer. We’ve got to give these guys chances. Because our scouting and transfers are a mess and are more misses than hits. Our better successes over recent years are from youth players. I’d be fine with us not making a big money purchase next summer and instead just scouting much more intelligently. Unless we are getting Haaland or Mbappe there’s no need to spend 50mill+ on any player honestly.