Arsenal will loan out Folarin Balogun in the January transfer window if he continues to struggle for playing time, according to Football London.
The 18-year-old broke into the Arsenal first team last season and signed a long-term contract to remain at the club.
He started their first league game of this season against Brentford in a show of confidence from Mikel Arteta who was missing Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
However, he has since struggled for playing time and is even behind Eddie Nketiah in the pecking order at the moment.
Arsenal knows his development needs more game time and the Gunners would sanction a move away for him if Arteta cannot find space to fit him in his team.
Balogun had several suitors in England and abroad when his previous contract was running down at Arsenal.
The Gunners will hope some of them return to sign him on loan in the winter transfer window.
They will prioritise sending him to a club where he can get the game time he cannot get at the Emirates.
This could see him leave the country or drop down divisions to the Championship because he is unlikely to get minutes at a Premier League club.
Didn’t even get to start against Wimbledon….
Promised to be part of the plans just like AMN….seems like certain players were fed BS
@PJ-SA
Exactly. Then the fans pile on him as not being good enough, after dude is bought back into the squad and either left on the bench, or languish in the under 23’s till he’s 26….
What a waist of young talent.
But we’re looking to buy outside or foreign players, to bolster the squad.
Trust the process indeed. 🤔
Good point, and even Martinelli to an extent. Maybe Martinelli not sharp enough to start, but he can certainly come on the last 10-15 min to replace a knackered Saka.
It continues to be a man management issue that never seems to get resolved. Promises here and there, yet never coming to fruition.
He made a mistake turning down Palace.
Won’t people accept that at present the likes of Martinelli and Balogun are just not ready for the first team at, Arsenal and, as a result new purchases who can come in who are ready are essential It isn’t down to any vendetta or false promises from Arteta it’s just the management team being sensible and prudent
probably part of his manager-mandated penance for speaking publicly during the contentious phase of his renegotiations, which would simply be par for the course since Arteta’s arrival in North London…furthermore, it’s clear that Marts is still languishing in the doghouse for reasons that are either still related to his social media “brain fart” last season or newer managerial concerns that arose as a result of his somewhat “controversial” involvement in the Tokyo Olympics…there’s no question that Arteta has struggled mightily when it comes to man management-related issues, which is especially disconcerting when it involves several of our more prominent “blue chip” prospects