Who is the leading scorer in Ligue 1? Who else but Arsenal’s own Folarin Balogun, who has 14 goals in 21 games for Stade Reims? There is no denying that the Arsenal man is exceptional, in a league with Kylian Mbappe, Jonathan David, Lionel Messi, and Neymar.
Balogun’s future is slowly becoming a point of contention among Arsenal fans, much like William Saliba’s was last season when he was impressing on loan at Marseille. Some believe the 21-year-old should be included in Arteta’s squad next season, while others, such as Samuel Bannister, of Teamtalk, who claims Arsenal could sell him.
“If Arsenal still see Jesus and Nketiah as their long-term strikers, they have supposedly acknowledged that they might have to cash in on Balogun at the end of this season instead,” writes Bannister.
Many may look at calls to cash in on Balogun and ask themselves, “Why lose all that potential?” Is it wrong to believe that Mikel Arteta’s strike force is in safe hands with Eddie Nketiah, who has eight goals in 10 starts, and Gabriel Jesus, whose arrival last summer transformed Arsenal’s attack?
In any case, Ligue 1 is not comparable to the Premier League. Balogun is a very good player, but he is not yet on the same level as Gabriel Jesus or Eddie Nketiah. So far, the suggested options have been another loan spell and integrating him into the squad next season, but I’d agree if he were sold on a permanent basis and Arteta reinvested funds from his sale. His chances of surviving as Arsenal’s first-choice are extremely slim, so why not cash in for an easy £50m?
Daniel O
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We lost the chance to sell AMN for 20 mill, can’t make the same mistake again!
Loan to a Premier League team
He and Nketiah are not too dissimilar, both are poachers. So it will come down to who in the long run is better at it
Balogun is far better on the ball, a tricky player who can beat a man, he could play wide whereas Nketiah has not shone there. Jesus can play wide too, so room for all three of them.
But we need to get Balogun to sign a new contract, if not we should consider cashing in.
Why? Didnt he already sign one just before this season?
He signed a four year deal in 2021 so two years to run.
It would be better to get him nailed down when he comes back
If there is a 50 M offer for him, Arsenal had better take it. Otherwise loan him out for one more season to see whether Nketiah or Balogun is more consistent
I’d take balogun over eddie all day long. balogun is a more complete striker. More skillful, better at holding up the ball than eddie. I say play jesus on the left and have eddie and balogun fight for the striker position. jesus can always come back into the striker position when needed
Think a £35 mil valuation is more practical, maybe only Brighton would be able to get £50 mil for him just now.
But you are right if a ridiculous bid comes in for him why not, we haven’t made a good sale since Iowby.
One of the Milan clubs has an eye on him.
Other than that we should extend his loan as his development continue
We are a club that is trying to get a squad together that can match the oil clubs and united, while not being able to match their spending.
Until Nketiah hit his recent run of scoring goals, we had just one accepted striker and, in Jesus, even that statement was questioned.
I fail to see why we would want to sell Balogun, even for this “made up” price of £50,000,000, when we have nurtured him to this stage in his career.
Certainly, the player sees himself as part of MA’s plans and I see no reason why he, Jesus and Nketiah shouldn’t be part of a squad that, hopefully, will be defending the PL title, challenging for the CL title, going further than the 4th round of the FA cup and even trying to win the carrabo Cup (or whatever title that cup is!!).
If we did manage to get £30-50m for him how much would we have to pay to get another striker if either Eddie or Jesus suffer an injury considering how crazy the market has been inflated. .Don’t sell ourselves short he needs to be given a chance to prove himself.
Accurate!💯💯
@gooner4life
RealTalk 👍🏾
Exactly Ken. Some fans seem to imagine two strikers are easily enough for a club of our level. We will be in CL next season and three strikers are IMO, the minimum we need.
Even right now , let alone next season. Even Spuds have four, not even counting Moura.
LOL @ “whatever title that cup is”.
Let’s just call it the League Cup? 🙂
Ken and G4L, rational, commonsense discussion points. A major component of Arsenal’s ability to compete with higher funded clubs is the inhouse Academy development of players. Young players who come through the system appear to be more committed and loyal to the Club. Arsenal does not have a surfeit of goal scoring players like Bslogan, who can play across the front line. His contract should be extended and opportunities given next season to secure a place, or contknue on loan at a top club.
One more season on loan preferably in a newly promoted team in the premiership with a right to call him back from loan in January. You need 3 forwards next year as they can also be used as wingers and sometimes as cover for Saka and Martinelli.
We only have Trossard as competition on the wings, so why not give Balogun a chance on the wings as depth/competition?
Why sell when he hasn’t even been tested at Arsenal? Seems a bit premature when neither Nelson or Vieira has impressed on the wings and ESR is struggling to show he’s fit and healthy.
Balogun and Jesus have versatility up front and we need quality for all the competitions next year.
Perhaps loan Vieira to get more time and build up his body, he’s too lightweight.
👍
It’s a no brainier, he stays and plays. We will hopefully be in the CL next season, so this and a new contract is incentive for him.
If he still had at least 3 years on his contract, I would say keep him for one season to deputize as RW for Saka and as backup ST. However, with only two years left by summer, I would say sell if an offer of 30-35M GBP comes in but with a first-refusal buyback option inserted into the deal.
This will ensure he continues his development instead of sitting on the bench at Arsenal. This move will give the club more room to observe Nketiah to see his ceiling. If he does not perform consistently, we can bring back Balogun if he develops in a better and more-rounded player than Nketiah. At the moment, I cannot separate who is better between both or who will end up the better player. It’s similar to when Madrid had Benzema and Higuain but later had to release Higuain and keep faith in Benzema, which IMHO was the right decision by the club.
Selling him to Italian Serie A, to a club like AC Milan will be good for him to further hone his tactical and technical understanding of the game, and most importantly play in the UCL.
we should keep hi, and sell Eddie. Unless we can use him for Rice or Bellingham’s deals.