Arsenal faces a pivotal decision regarding the future of Folarin Balogun, a promising young talent with immense potential. Manager Mikel Arteta’s loyalty to certain players and his preference for versatile options have cast uncertainty over Balogun’s place in the squad.
This article delves into the implications of Arteta’s choices, the philosophy behind favoring versatile players, and the potential risks and rewards associated with Balogun’s possible departure.
Balogun, a center-forward, showcased his prowess by scoring an impressive 22 goals during his first full season as a regular player while on loan at Reims. However, Arteta’s strong attachment to certain players and his past decisions, such as benching Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for personal reasons, have raised concerns about the treatment of young talents like Balogun.
The trend of favoring versatile players like Chelsea’s Kai Havertz over specialists like Balogun is prevalent in modern football. Managers often believe that versatility enhances the team’s overall performance and elevates the collective capabilities. However, it’s essential to note that versatility alone does not guarantee exceptional results, as evidenced by Havertz’s mixed performances despite his hefty price tag and wages.
Eddie Nketiah, another young talent at Arsenal, has received opportunities to prove himself during Gabriel Jesus’ injuries with a modicum of success. However, his modest goal return suggests that he might not reach his full potential at the club. Considering Balogun’s impressive scoring record, it raises questions about Arsenal’s decision to potentially keep Nketiah while letting go of a more prolific and promising striker.
The Arsenal front office must carefully weigh the risks and rewards of their transfer decisions. While bolstering the squad with marquee signings like Havertz, Rice, and Timber could strengthen the team’s overall quality, letting Balogun leave without a fair chance might lead to regret if he flourishes elsewhere.
The coming season could serve as a litmus test for Arteta and Edu’s bold moves in the transfer market. If Arsenal achieves success and clinches major honors, they will be celebrated as visionaries for their strategic decisions. However, if Balogun thrives at another club while the retained players fail to make a significant impact, criticism might loom over the club’s management.
In conclusion, Arsenal faces a crucial decision concerning Folarin Balogun’s future, with Arteta’s loyalty and favoritism for versatility posing a dilemma. While the preference for versatile players is a common strategy in modern football, it doesn’t guarantee success. Arsenal must carefully consider Balogun’s potential and weigh it against the risks of parting ways with a young and prolific striker. The coming season will determine whether Arsenal’s bold moves propel them to glory or leave them with regrets about letting a promising talent slip through their grasp.
Moggy (A guest post from The Arsenal Blog)
As I said in the beginning of our last season when they kept Eddie…..the reason we are in this position is that they choose to give Eddie yet another season of chances instead of giving Balogun a chance so that we could make a educated call on the future of both players when we got to this point in time.
How they didn’t see this conundrum coming is beyond me.
There is no conundrum at all.
Neither are good enough to lead us up front.
If we can get £70 million or so for both that would represent good business and we can sign a proven goal scorer.
Agree that Balogun deserves a chance and hopefully he will do well in pre season. He is an out and out centre forward whereas Nketiah works the line.
With the offensive players we have I would be tempted to keep him. But you can never second guess Mikel and he may surprise us all. After all did anybody expect Havertz or Timber ?
Apart from Serge Gnabry, off the top of my head, I cannot think of an Arsenal fringe player who has gone on to make it big time elsewhere.I believe Balogun will be sold to help fund th Havertz deal but I would be very surprised if we get more than 35m for him as ,apart from his goalscoring prowess he is no better than Nketiah in my opinion.
That’s very confusing when comparing strikers
So besides from goal scoring, he’s no better than Eddie? 🙃
yeah that small detail such as putting the ball in the back of the net ?
👍 dan, seems to be a small detail often forgotten by many. One wonders whether Arsenal even practices shooting given the created chances missed by ineptitude in front of goal.
Haaland is only better than Nketiah in goal scoring. I can assure you of that. But strangely, it’s the reason why Haaland is world class and Nketiah isn’t good enough to warm our bench.
@dgr8xt
True but sometimes we evaluate a striker on more than just goalscoring. CR7 was banging in goals at ManU and even finished the previous season as their top scrorer only to be kicked out midway into the next season, why? As for Haaland I have watched him play and I agree apart from goalscoring he offers absolutely nothing. He truly is an Nketiah that scores!
Grandad you’ve confused me, apart from goalscoring, what else is the job of a striker. Take goalscoring away from Halland and he’s just another Nketiah.
I completely disagree. Take goalscoring away from Haaland and he’s WORSE than Nketiah
Balogun is currently our most marketable CF and his sale could allow Arteta to sign a new one that is more suited to Arteta’s tactics
I wouldn’t be surprised if we just end up with Jesus and Havertz for the CF role
Gai,
Apart from Drogba who came from French league as a top scorer and excel well in England, I don’t rate much CF who scored lots of goals in France, Giroud was signed by Arsenal but his goals returns wasn’t fantastic in Epl. I suggest Arsenal sell Balogun and look for a more proven CF if possible from English Championship. If not for Evan Tony ban I would have bet on him for Arsenal. Arsenal should cash in on Balogun.
Thierry Henri maybe 🤔
Signed from Juventus.
Yes, I think Nketiah can also score many goals in France
It took Drogba forever to even excel as a goalscorer. If I remember correctly, it wasn’t unti 2009/10 season under Carlos Ancelotti that Drogba came into his own as consistent goalscorer. Yes, he often scored important goals, but not as a consistent goal scorer, going 20+ league goals.
Drogba was one of the best cf who had ever played in epl – one of my all time favourite . He was every defender nightmare.
Trossard played there last season or Martinelli could switch in.
Yes, we still have Trossard to rotate with Jesus
My feeling on the situation is Balogun appears to want guarantees to start and not be part of a squad. I don’t think Arteta wants that sort of attitude. You send young players out to get experience then come back a better player and fight for a chance.
I would love him to stay as he could come back to haunt us !
I think it would be wise if Balugun stays at arsenal to prove his talent to the world, arsenal is entering a number of competetion which needs a large squard and injuries are also there, so Arteta must think wide before letting Balugun leave, since he is going to play premier league, champions league, FA Cup and carabao cup and u cant use only the same player to play these games.
G Jesus even sometimes not very productive he could waste chances, except that he only give pressure to deffenders but atleast Balugun knows inside the post beter than Jesus.
I suggest Arterta should not let Balugun go.
Keith (Uganda)
Commentators like to speak of his 21 goals as “impressive” and such. But just 15 from open play. So how impressive is it really? We were impressed by Pepe’s 22 goals prior to his acquisition, but he ended up being the player you’d expect with just 9 of those from open play. Sell!
You’re right. I also thought about that severally.
But I still think that 15 goals is still impressive. If I remember correctly, Osimhen scored only 12 and was sold to Napoli for €60m. He was already showing more promise than Nketiah before he left. So I think he should take Nketiah’s place
Lacazette got 17
I meant 27
Balogun is a better prospect than Nketiah but it looks like he just does not want o be here. He is impatient for first team football and Arteta is not going to build the side around him so a sale is the only solution.
Nketiah has his limitations but came in when needed last season and did well.
Arsenal will sell Balogun because he’s the most marketable young player without a massive ceiling that fetch a decent price.
The market is littered with average strikers.
Balogun has not proven he can cut his teeth in the premier league.
Arsenal might thinks it’s best to stick to the evil you know, (Eddie)
One pit fall is that he could very well continue on a upward trajectory scoring goals for fun.
With the way Arsenal wants to go, I think Balogun will suffer. And perhaps, more importantly, the kid’s only got two years left on his contract. Why try so hard to convince him to sign another contract (which will take time really. And hey, the last contract he signed two years ago was also a drag)? I think selling Balogun makes sense. I prefer Nketiah nimbleness and goal-poaching ability. Unfortuntately, he may just have to be content with being a squad player. Moreover, Nketiah is flexible enough to play across the front. Balogun can’t, and that’s problem because it will keep more on the bench.
To those who have failed to get the drift of my comments, I would point out that 7 of the goals scored by Balogun last season were from penalties. Having watched him on a number of occasions, apart from scoring goals, he contributed precious little to the team in terms of workload, creativity ,ability to link play and his first touch was poor.The fact that he was playing in a League which is substantially weaker than the EPL is another factor to consider when judging his ability to do well as a central striker for Arsenal.It seems to me that Arteta does not rate him highly enough to risk him in the EPL because of the limitations I have described.I may be completely wrong in my assessment of Balogun and if he is given an opportunity to pull on the red shirt I will support him 100%.
God bless you Grandad for your analysis. You’re spot-on. That’s what I call a Macro analysis vs Mirco analysis. It’s so easy to say, “Yeah, Balogun scored 21 goals in the Ligue 1 last season.” But when a third of those goals are from spot kicks, mehn!, that says a lot. Whereas, Martinelli did 15 goals from open play with all the working in sync with the team’s philosophy. Personally, I think Balogun will be better in the Serie A. He’s built for that. Let Milan or Inter come and take him but I doubt they have the money Arsenal is asking for. My verdict, “Sell Balogun to a willing EPL team. ” They’ll buy. I hear Chelsea are interested. That’s music to my ears
Havertz is referred to as a marquee signing. Is it because we paid £65m for him plus a reported £330,000k a week contract? Of all our signings this one worries me the most, it can’t be based on stats because they are awful.
91 EPL matches – 19 goals – 7 assists
31 UCL ” – 7 goals – 0 assists
Declan Rice, although costly, is not a risk everyone knows what he brings and (at long last) we have a leader. I do not know enough about Timber to comment.
It’s actually very difficult to tell who would get more goals in a season if made the main striker between Jesus, Eddie and Balogun.
If we sell Balogun and don’t buy another striker I’d actually like Eddie to get a decent run of starts even if Jesus is fit….so we can put it to bed once and for all. Should’ve happened last season already but there’s only 1 way to find out now.
The reason Jesus doesn’t score more goals than he should is because with the way he plays, always dropping deep to overload the field, he creates opportunities for someone like Martinelli to move into central positions and become more lethal. If Jesus stays more up-front, he’d score tons of goals. Balogun’s style wouldn’t work well with what Arteta is trying to build. Balogun just wants to run to goal expecting others behind to the work for him. Nketiah on the other hand has a certain mobility that allows him to show up in those small pocket of space to poach a goal in. Moreover, he’s showing he’s adapting to Arteta’s demands. I’d keep Nketiah as a squad player if he’s content being a squad player at Arsenal than trying to be the “main” guy at Crystal Place which isn’t guaranteed. Arsenal are on an exciting trajectory. Who wouldn’t want to stay, if they could?
Just wondering if Pep Guardiola thought about “versatility” before he signed Erling Haaland?
Not to say I’m comparing Balogun with Haaland, but explosive and clinical strikers are extremely hard to find.
Instead of selling Balogun for peanuts, we should probably find a manager who can get the best out of him.
Meaning? To ditch everything just for Balogun? Let Balogun come fight for his shirt. If he does it well for two seasons back to back, then we won’t have a problem selling Gabriel Jesus in two years’ time to Real Madrid when he’d be 28 and with two more years left on his contract.
What gets me baffled is what Arteta sees in Nketia. The young man has been given more than enough time to prove himself but, he wouldn’t. Why not give Balogun the opportunity to fail. Until favouritism is gone amongst our coaching crew, the team would continue to wallow in costly mistakes.
There’s no reason we can’t have Jesus, Nketiah, and Balogun in this squad for the season. Three strikers are OK. Let Balogun come and fight for his shirt. He shouldn’t feel so entitled because he’s young and has potential. Jesus is a proper number 9, yet at Manchester City, he had to play on the right or left because of Aguero. Balogun should be able to play across the front line. Nketiah can do that. So why can’t Balogun?
To me Balogun is a better striker than nketia & jesus. My reasons are; age wise, Balogun is younger n smarter, fitness wise. Balogun is better off cos he is d only Arsenal player that has not fall sick or had any surgery in 5yrs after Saka. Then if u look at all this critically u knw that those i jst mentioned matters alot. Gabriel jusus is far abv Balogun in age n Nketiah hav been given 3season to prove himself while Balogun have not gotten any & u can take a look at his performance on loan last season then u’ll understant nketiah is not in anyway closer to him including finishing.
Folarin is 22. Nketiah is now 24. Jesus is 26. Why can’t all these players be in the squad for the season? Let Jesus be our top striker like he already is. Let Folarin and Nketiah play for the second role. They can even play together if the coach wants to play formation with two strikers in some scenarios like in a 4-4-2 or 3-5-2 or 3-4-1-2
Have a look at baloguns stats from last season. Goals aside there wasn’t much to his game. It could be how he was played or the system but arsenal do it differently. If he isn’t closing down, intercepts and passing he shouldn’t be in the team. Eddie does put in a shift but neither are good enough for top four teams imo
I am tired of reading that Arteta wants versatile players. He has never used that so called versatility.
Ben White, Tomi could be CBs Ever? NO
Jesus can play on the wings (did it at MC) ever? No
Leave Balogun aside. Arteta wants versality just as a talking point for the mases and maybe the owners. He will never use it!!
Tired of that slogan about buying expensive players due to their versatility, we all know that any signed player will only take one fix place, rain or shine.
Folarin Balogun is a very good striker. Unfortunately, his attribute don’t suit Arteta. Eddie Nketiah is more versatile, dynamic and higher work rate.
The same way Tierney is a good, if not top-class LB but his attributes doesn’t suit Arteta’s need for an inverted LW who can move into left-side midfield the way Zinchenko does, right?
I hope Arteta decides to keep Balogun. He should be given a fair chance to prove himself after a successful loan stint in France. He is promising, has talent and has a very high potential and could be a focal point of Arsenal’s attack.
Please we shouldn’t sell the balogun because he has an experience to score let us test he’s capacity please i like him because he has an experience seriously when you he’s played at reims we will know that he has improved very well Gabriel Jesus he’s not good forward striker he is good as winger please arsenal they shouldn’t sell the balogun please
Versatile Player
A great phrase for the pundits, especially when applied to Havertz and players of that ilk
But for me, there is a much more apt phrase that sums them up…
Jack of all trades, master of none!!!
Keep Balogan and if you have to, sell Eddie instead.