Folarin Balogun has gained many pludits for his mostly cameo performances in the Europa League, including Arsenal’s 4th goal against Dundalk last night, and he got a special mention from Mikel Arteta after the game.
The boss said: “Yeah, he’s done really well. Every minute he’s been on that field he’s been superb and today he looked a threat again. He scored a goal and set up another one, and he looked really lively and mature on the pitch.”
But there is sill a cloud hanging over his future at Arsenal as his contract is up at the end of the season, and he could get a very lucrative deal this summer if he moved on as a free agent.
But Arteta still seems confident that a compromise can be agreed and tells us that the player himself has told him that he wants to stay. Arteta continued: “Well, we’ve been having some discussions with the player. He knows that we want to retain him at the club and we know that the length of his contract at the moment is an issue, but we’re trying to resolve it in the best possible way. We want him to stay and he’s said to me that he wants to stay at the club, so hopefully we can reach an agreement and extend his contract.”
Hmmm, I would think that if “he wants to stay”, then I don’t understand why they can’t come to an agreement. If Mikel is only hopeful then it sounds like Balogun is just stringing him along…
What do you think?