Folarin Balogun has been in superb form on loan at Reims in the French top flight and is Arsenal’s best loanee this term.
The striker moved to France to gain first-team experience and has exploded in Ligue 1, which means Arsenal must decide on his future in the summer.
The Gunners, like everyone, did not expect him to do so well in the French top flight and are surprised by his progress so far.
However, that does not mean they have a plan for him and Gabby Agbonlahor believes there is no need to think too much about how Balogun is doing in France.
The former Aston Villa man thinks the ideal thing to do is to offload him for the right price because he is still not good enough for the club.
He tells Football Insider:
“He’s done well in France, but I don’t think he’s Arsenal standard.
“They’re going to be in the Champions League next season, they need another proven striker to compete with Nketiah and Gabriel Jesus.
“I don’t think Arsenal would use him next season if he came back.
“Him scoring goals in France has helped the club. Now they can put him up for sale and name their price.
“It’s definitely a sale waiting for Arsenal to make.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
Balogun has done well in France, but as Agbonlahor has said, playing in France is different from the Premier League and Champions League.
He may struggle back in England and we probably just need to allow him to go and build his career somewhere else.
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Let him go with a buy back clause with 1st refusal. If we want someone like Ollie Watkins from Villa then offer Eddie in that direction with the same sort of clause. If we are not going to use them much then why keep them as we are definitely going to be another ST this summer
Ollie is NOT better than Eddie
That guy is tricky, and skillful. Arsenal should see him out. We may regret selĺing our very own David Villa.
Add Gabriel to the list.If I aint wrong this is the 3rd penalty conceded by him.
I would not trust Gabby’s opinion on this, he dies not strike me as a French league follower or one who would like good for AFC.
He has to be watched closely to decide.
For me, and average fan, the guy was too good in the academy, scored in EL. Gained a glimpse of PL experience in couple of tough matches, went to championship gained experience and did fairly ok, then to France and did well.
If he thinks that he would come to Arsenal and easily displace Jesus, Eddie and everyone and directly be a starter then he is delusional but if he is ready to fight for his place and wait and see then it is probably worth to give him a shot and see if he can add to the squad.
He is almost equal to younger English version of Jonathan David whom fans and media have been shipping to Arsenal every transfer window.
Herd to imagine granting Nketiah, who did very little with his loan chances, and not a lot better with his chanced when Jesus was injured., untouchable status while in the same breath dismissing a player scoring 19 goals and 3 assists in all comps for a mid-table French side.
Nketiak is not a bad player, but he has never been a regular player for a full season at any level. Until he does that and performs at a high level, it seems silly to put so much faith in him.
Gabriel Jesus is a terrific player, but he is not going to deliver 20 goals a season. He never has and based on his Arsenal season, he never will.
Balogun, in contrast, in his first chance at being a full-time, senior player, looks like he might score 20 goals. The answer at forward Arsenal are looking for might already be on the team. Keeping faith with Balogun would be cheaper, less risky, and potentially brilliant.
Conversely, letting him walk away for 20-30 million and having him score 20 goals for Brighton, Aston Villa, or West Ham seems like a Gnabry/Bennacer sized oops.
As far as buy-back clauses, Balogun would have to be an idiot to sign a contract with one in it. That kind of clause would reduce the money a team would be willing to pay to get him, becausei t will reduce his sell-on value; as well as the money they would be willing to invest in his salary, because if he does well, he can hold the hostage over a move back to Arsenal for more money – a club will not want to tie up a big salary into a player with one eye on the exit.
Arsenal are facing a significant choice. Reiss Nelson faced a smililar one and arguably squibbed the kick. He had a good loan in the Eredivisie, came back and rotted, and is now having the same conversation with less leverage.
Jesse Lingard made a similar mistake. He had a brilliant year on loan at West Ham. Moyes wanted to keep him, but Lingard went back to United, rotted for a year, and ended up at Forest, where he’s been inconsequential for one of the worst teams in the league.
Hopefully Balogun won’t make the same mistake.