Folarin Balogun has asked to leave Arsenal, according to Todofichajes.
The youngster broke into their first team last season and Mikel Arteta promoted him full-time for this campaign.
However, playing chances have been hard to come by and he is getting minutes only with the Gunners’ Under-23 team.
The striker has overly impressed there and he needs to play in a tougher competition to aid his development.
The report says Arteta has to decide between giving him more first-team chances and allowing him to leave the club in the January transfer window for a temporary stint elsewhere.
Balogun has shown great capabilities in age-grade competitions, but he doesn’t look ready for first-team action at Arsenal yet.
The smart thing to do would be to send him out on loan, and the earlier the better.
With Alexandre Lacazette and Eddie Nketiah leaving, Arsenal needs a striker that can offer support to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, but Balogun isn’t ready for that responsibility.
Sending him out on loan is also tricky, as he could join a club that doesn’t give him as many chances as he desires.
However, Arsenal could add some incentives for his loan club if he is played as often as they want and that could see him get more than enough playing time out on loan.
That certainly can’t come as a shock to anyone
Loan him to castle, they only have a perpetual injured striker and a assist making striker , so he should be able to contribute on regular basis for the Magpies
I suspect Newcastle will be looking for bigger fish to fry if they are still in relegation zone – the level of a Lacazette or Lingaard.
Sadly Balogun hasn’t had many chances and hasn’t done much with the few he has had this year. But after sweet talking him to stay, Arteta and Edu owe him a loan to a club where he has a good chance to succeed. Other young Arsenal players on the fringe will be watching.
He had few minutes Europa last year than I have hoped. This year, played 77 minutes on 3 matches (70 in 2 PL matches). He needs a run of games.
One of those matches was Bentford when everyone in the team except Tomy was out of form. You cannot ask a 20 years old player to carry a team in his first season.
Loan would do him good, same for Martenilli. MA is not a rotation coach anyways, even his substitutions are late and players who are not regularly starting does not seem match fit.
Do not*
I would give him game time above Nketian and even Aubamayang if he doesn’t produce more. We look like losing Saliba, possibly Martinellii so can’t afford to lose future stars at the expense of old men or a manager who seems to apply the same standards as a future father in law when evaluating his players.
If he is too eagre to show his skills and is impatient, let him go. We all know what happened to Willock, Iwobi, Teo, Ox, Gibbs, etc. In fact Wenger did let go Ismael Bennacer, Sergie Gnarby, D. Malen who were much much better than Folarin, so Mikel cannot hold a player against his wishes
A loan to another PL club would be the best option for both Club and player.
He needs to play on a regular basis,so a loan to a team in the Championship or League 1 would be more appropriate than another EPL side.