Folarin Balogun is expected to leave this summer. The 21-year-old isn’t assured to be Arteta’s first-choice striker. If he stays at the Emirates, he may be relegated to the bench. With a desire to retain the momentum he established last season on loan at Stade de Reims, where he scored 21 goals in 37 league games, he will likely leave on a permanent basis since, as he revealed a few weeks ago, a loan exit is not an option.
Selling Balogun may be viewed as a risky move, but the beauty of his departure is that it may generate significant revenue for Arsenal.
If Arteta and Edu want to make money off of Balogun, they should be careful who they sell him to.
Balogun should not be sold to a direct rival.
According GiveMeSport, Crystal Palace are keen to buy him, but it would break their record transfer fee.
They also say that Inter Milan, Monaco, Marseille, Leipzig, AC Milan are also considering the situation.
But the Daily Mail reports that Chelsea is in talks with Balogun’s entourage about him joining them. Chelsea can certainly afford him, but they are one of the teams Arsenal should not sell to. We don’t need another Van Persie to Manchester United-like deal for Balogun’s exit.
At best, Balogun should be moved to “indirect opponents” like Marseille or Inter Milan, both of which both are mentioned in the Mail article. Recent happenings have suggested that Edu and Arteta are aware that Balogun joining a fellow Premier League club could be bad news, as if not, they could have easily included the USMNT striker in Rice’s deal, given that West Ham, apart from Chelsea, is one of the many EPL teams that have expressed an interest in the Arsenal forward.
Arsenal may be convinced they need to sell Balogun, but they need to be picky about who they sell him to, as they do not want to weaponize their rivals.
Daniel O
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He must not be sold to any Epl club, same goes to Tierney,
We can’t help in strengthening oppositions.
Why? If Chelsea pay up and the player wants to go what’s wrong with that. The other sale I’m hoping for is Pepe to spurs
Arsenal and Chelsea have been doing business together lately so Balogun going to Chelsea will not be a bad thing as long as they give Arsenal about 40 to 45m for Balogun.
With pochetino it could easily become another Kane that he unlocks and we will regret it in years to come.
The best scenario we must insert a buy back clause where ever he goes with a reasonable amount
If he’s not deemed good enough for us then why does it matter where he goes?
The reverse could also be asked; if we don’t want to strengthen an opponent, then maybe he’s worth keeping and a better 2nd choice than Nketiah.
Why sell before they even see him perform at Arsenal? What’s to fear? Don’t tell me a drop in value, after we ripped up contracts, paid Auba to leave, and sold Guendouzi, Leno, and Torreira for pennies.
I’m not opposed to selling Balogun, especially overseas, if money is invested wisely.
If it is put towards a plan B striker for example. Just not another costly Vieira type purchase with no clear plan of where they feature.
Don’t need a 5th winger, 5th CB, or 4th FB. I’d rather use Pepe as 4th or 5th choice, than rip up contract or see Vieira on the wing. If we sell Partey, those funds plus Xhaka’s can cover another midfielder.
@PJ-SA
Exactly…
I’m getting pretty irritated with half dead genius suggestions that we sell Balogun. Why should Jesus not have competition like other positions? A hungry team is not built by having any player walk into a team regardless of form. I hope Edu & Arteta have better brains 🧠 than you lot!
What.if Chelsea are the highest (or even the only) bidder?
For me, it doesn’t really matter. If you don’t sell to them, another club would
Think the writer is trying share genuine concerns of the possibilities of eggs getting on the gaffer face
If Chelsea can give us £50m, we’d better sell him. Balogun’s finishing skills are good, but RVP’s hold-up play and aerial abilities were superior
Selling him to Chelsea would force them to bench their more powerful CFs
Can anyone tell us why DRice and Timber haven’t been announced?
I was wondering that
Maybe Arsenal are preparing something special, because Rice broke our transfer record
Timber has gone back to say his goodbyes in Holland and I think Declan is still on holiday and he is coming back early to complete the transfer
According to a YouTube channel dedicated to Arsenal, Declan Rice is on holiday. The announcement of D Rice and Timber will be this week. Let’s wait and see.
Friday I’ve read before we fly out to the US for preseason on Sunday
Wouldn’t really be a RVP scenario, more an Andy Cole type situation. In the mid 90’s we chose Campbell over Andy Cole. Didn’t work out so well. Choosing Eddie over Balogun would be a similar scenario. It’s hard to know which one will turn out better. It seems to me Balogun may have an inflated impression of himself, although sometimes that’s what it takes to be a clinical striker. Eddie seems to be more professional and considered in his conduct. On instinct, I think Balogun has proven himself in front of goal over Eddie bur Mikel knows what’s best for the squad. He’ll make that decision based on the bigger. picture
That is a good analogy.
The problem with Balogun is that he struggled in the Championship with Middlesbrough, scoring roughly 1 in 3 against weaker opposition.
I would say that his time with them is a more accurate reflection of his ability than his time with Reims FC.
Eddie has more ability from what I have seen – not that I am saying he is of the required quality, but luckily for us the goals are spread throughout the squad rather than relying on one player. We don’t necessarily need an out and out striker..
How about Nketiah getting benched at Leeds Utd while on loan in championship? Isn’t that also a more accurate reflection of his ability?
Especially considering Nketiah has little to show for his 131 appearances with Arsenal.
Balogun showed improvement at Reims over his previous year. What has Nketiah shown over his previous year?
We have to move on from players not at the caliber we need. Holding, Elneny, Nketiah, Pepe, Vieira.
People complained about deadwood before Arteta, there still needs more clear outs.
Chelsik should come take him for £45m plus £5m add on.
Simple!
I think arsenal did a good sale on Xhaka. I expect same on Balogun if Arteta really want to sell him
Even without injuries there’ll be plenty of opportunities for both Eddie & Balogun at Arsenal next season….far more than at Chelsea with no European football. Competition will be good for them.
If Balogun has to be sold, for £50m (plus a buy back clause after 2 seasons) he can go anywhere.
How will there be more opportunities than the season that just passed? Considering Eddie barely got a run of games you are now saying if Balogun adds to the attack they’ll both somehow get more chances than last season?
I’d love to hear how?
Muy de acuerdo..contigo…👍
Cannot see any team paying over 30 million for the lad even off the back of his goalscoring exploits last season ,I think that would be a fair price and maybe put in a buy back clause which a lot of teams actually do .
Best to sell now while his stock is high than keep a player that maybe won’t get the minutes he deserves this season ,especially with Eddie signing a new contract and then devaluing Balogun which Arteta and club have a knack of doing .
OT: Was Tonali pressured into joining Newcastle? His overall demeanor is just off in all Newcastle videos that popped up on my timeline. Dude’s just sulking around like he don’t wanna be there!
His hangers-on look happy though
Won’t address that but Ive noticed that generally speaking, Italian players don’t do well in the Premier League.. The last REAL success story I can remember is Zola..?
Jorginho,maybe not a massive success but still solid but saying that he was actually born in Brazil but definitely Italians don’t do well over here so got to agree with you .
AC Milan has made almost 50 million profit this window, Inter roughly 30 million + impeding 40 million for Onana so they both have money to pay for Balogun. Let’s not forget Napoli paid like 60-70 million for Osimhen and his stats at Ligue 1 weren’t that much better than Flos.
Long story short, foreign clubs Do have money for Balogun.
Besides I would take 35-40 million pounds for Balogun if there a certain add ons like future sale percentage, performance related bonuses etc.
Why can’t these young players emulate Saka? He started playing as a right back and as they say the rest is history.
One decent season in the French league and the boy thinks he deserves to be in the starting eleven? SMH
How must he emulate Saka without getting a genuine chance in Arsenals first team? At hi age Saka had already been given the chance with a long run inthe 1st team.
I’d love to hear how someone that hasn’t been given and wasn’t going to get that chance can emulate the situation?
We should not sell Balogun to rival for a top four slot
But he can go to Chelsea
Neither of our strikers are prolific. There seems to be this tendency to keep Jesus our No.1 striker although he don’t have No.1 sticker numbers and don’t even get me started about Eddie. Balogun must be given a chance even if we decide to offload him in January. I’ve seen enough of Eddie to know he ain’t it.