While we are all waiting for Emile Smith-Rowe to sign his new Arsenal contract, with the crazy transfer rumours saying that Aston Villa are trying to tempt him into refusing to sign, it may be worth thinking back to just six months ago, when everyone was pretty certain that Falorin Balogun, with just six months left on his contract, was going to be tempted to leave as a free agent.
But Edu and Mikel Arteta managed to persuade the young promising starlet to sign on the dotted line, as they did a little earlier with Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli before him.
So the Gunners now have a great selection of young talents to choose from, and hopefully we will be able to see Balogun finally playing in the first team in pre-season, and he can prove to Arteta that he can be just as lethal playing against a better class of opponent than he has faced so far in his Europa League appearances last season.
Balogun has been seen training with the first team squad this week, and with two games against Hibs and Rangers coming up in the next ten days, hopefully he will get a chance to prove himself before Arteta anounces the squad to go to America for the Florida Cup.
I’m hoping he is going to be the next young Gunner to become a regular in the Arsenal first team…