Thierry Henry is the latest to advise Folarin Balogun to leave Arsenal and establish himself elsewhere.
About the 21-year-old, the Arsenal legend told CBS Sport: “Now for him, it’s going to be important next season to play.
“I don’t know if he’s going to play for Arsenal. We all know for the national team with England, he had to battle with Callum Wilson, [Ivan] Toney, Ollie Watkins, Tammy Abraham, Harry Kane.
“He’s been great in the league. He’s a good nine. Now he’s going to have to find a team where he’s going to play next year; that’s very important.”
Could it be that Henry is looking to coach the USA national team, as rumoured, and he wants Balogun to keep on scoring?
"Vacant manager, an Arsenal player you know well…"@Carra23 is pitching Thierry for the @USMNT job after @balogun switched his allegiance. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/PT9w0NcWx5
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) May 16, 2023
Balogun has been spectacular in the French league while on loan to Stade de Reims. In 34 league games, he’s scored 19 goals.
His numbers could convince many Gunners that he is a player who can add something to Arteta’s project. However, let’s face it: does he start before Gabriel Jesus and Eddie Nketiah? I doubt he does.
There have been murmurs that Arteta is looking for a physical striker for his project, some fans want Balogun to be given his chance but I suspect Arteta wants a more guaranteed goal getter.
I don’t think he certain to suit the Premier League yet and so maybe Arsenal should cash in on the latest addition to the USA national team while he is likely to command a big fee, but in doing so, they should act as big clubs do, which is to put a buyback clause in the sale agreement they sign with his suitors.
Speaking of suitors, the Hale End graduate has a lot of them; hopefully, he can choose one that sees him as their main man.
He could get regular football and we can then add the proceeds to our fund to buy a proven top-class hitman….
Video – Mikel Arteta pre Forest – More injuries…. A hard week…. What can Arsenal do in the summer?
CALLING ALL ARSENAL FANS! Anyone who would like to contribute an Article or Video opinion piece on JustArsenal, please contact us through this link…
If Balogun really want to move, we should not block him. He hasn’t proven himself on arsenal shirt yet. Do we won’t miss him much. The proceeds from his sale should be used to get a proper striker whose duty is to score goals.
USA should stay clear of TH14 he was a great player but neither a great pundit nor a great manager
Has Balogun improved his hold-up play and aerial ability? I think his other skills, including his finishing ability, are similar to Jesus’ and Nketiah’s
Except his finishing is far superior to Nketiah, and Jesus hasn’t been pulling up trees. Frankly Jesus hasn’t shown he can carry the line as a striker by himself.
Maybe he would be better paired with another striker up top or move him to the wing like Pep did. Don’t think Jesus will lead us as a 9.
Balogun’s goal tally looks good in Ligue 1, but he still needs to be tested in EPL
The very fact that he wasn’t selected for the position in front of the other strikers TH mentioned, must mean something?
I haven’t followed Balogun in France, but I do believe that MA does see him as part of the future – after handing him a new contract and sending him out on loan.
The only problem I see, is the player might be starting to believe the media hype and think he’s the proven article.
If push came to shove, I would rather he stayed than either Nketiah or Nelson, but that’s just my opinion of what I have actually seen of him.
I don’t think Nketiah or Nelson will take us forward and Balogun should be given the opportunity to show he can.
👌 Absolutely
Ken IF forced to choose one of your listed three, I would also keep BALOGUN.
But I DO NOT AGREE HE will stay and neither will Nelson . Id be happy though to let all three leave, as I see NONE of them being remotely ever at any City players level, even allowing for their still young ages.
IF we are serious about WINNING the title, we need a full squad of players ALL at Citys level, just to level the playing field. That means getting rid of ALL players currently not at that level (or who will never attain it either).
Jon, you’re right. Most of us want these lads to succeed and because we care about their progress we stick with them for too long in a hope that things will click for them. In the cold light of day, however, it seems unlikely that any of the players mentioned will be good enough. It seems more and more difficult to acquire truly excellent players these days (certainly for us anyway). Or is it that we are so invested in our team that we may over-expect, over-hope.
My goodness Lilywhites have just had their bums soundly spanked ! Mbeumo has destroyed them.
EG Exactly right. I neve runderstnd WHY some fans seem more “in love” wityj individula players than they do for our team To me, the team comes first, second and always. Players come qand go through thages andonly those who become 100% accepted as TRUE LEGENDS, ARE THE SORT WE NEED.
Our direct rival is City and were those players in our team, we would be calling every single one of them , legends And we would be right too. We vastly overhype run of the mill players and thats plain daft!
But Nketiah, Nelson, Balogun, Holding, Pepe. Soares Elneny and several others too are NEVER going to be called legends.
LEG ENDS, more like!
Agreed. An exception for me though was my adolescent adoration of Alan Ball, who for me, is the greatest English player of all. Probably no one would agree with me, but I just loved the guy. Everton was his greatest period, but he was still wonderful at Arsenal and indeed Southampton imo. I was quite upset at his passing (death that is, but loved his passing on the field). Ofcourse not as upset as I was when my mum, sister Florence, dad, beloved uncle Sidney and auntie Hermione died. That’s another story.
In response to the q’s as to whether Henry is vying for the USMNT Manager’s job; Yes we know he is. It’s been out in the open since the current coach’s entanglement with his political views.
If Balogun wants out, let him go, as long as we recoup some good sign up fees,
IMO, if we want to shake foundations, we need to get Harry kane, he’s still got 3/4 years in him, get 2 powerful CMs and we’ll break any superstructure on our path.
Bologun should not leave arsenal ,he is promising player .