L’Equipe report this evening that Folarin Balogun will join Ligue 1 side Stade de Reims on a season-long loan.
The England under-21 international is understood to have turned down opportunities from Premier League clubs to fill the void left by striker Hugo Ekitike who was recently loaned to Paris Saint Germain.
Balogun is due in France tomorrow to undertake a medical. His contract will not include an option to buy.
After committing his future to Arsenal last summer, the 21-year-old was retained by the club in the first half of last season before joining Middlesbrough in January. He went on to score three goals in 21 appearances at the Riverside Stadium.
A talented, technically gifted striker with a burst of pace, Balogun has the ingredients to make it at the highest level, he now needs regular game time to prove it. In that sense, a loan certainly makes sense.
At the same time, Arsenal now have just two bona fide strikers – Gabriel Jesus and Eddie Nketiah – in the first team squad and face a hectic pre-World Cup schedule that includes Europa League and League Cup football on top of Premier League commitments.
It’ll be interesting to see if Mikel Arteta and Edu look to add further strength in depth in that area in the coming weeks.
Seriously short up front if this goes through. We must have someone up our sleeve!
I’m tempted to agree but martinelli could do a job through the middle I think…there should be an option of a recall in January in the deal I hope…being a world cup year and with a bumper schedule it’s always one injury away…
The irony of your comment is that Eddie and Jesus can actually fit inside Arteta’s sleeve. So yes, we are a little short upfront.
Martinelli is more than capable of moving centrally if required.
I think we are nicely set. Too much depth means many unhappy players.
How many top teams have 3 recognised first team CFs nowadays? City have Haaland and Alvarez, Liverpool have Nunez and Firmino, United have Ronaldo and Martial etc. The 3rd choice striker is typically a winger or an attacking mid, which in our case would likely be Martinelli or ESR.
Weird. Prem clubs interested not least our own .. Potentially something in the pipeline or we are short… Regardless, do us proud Flo
An interesting move. Good for him. Its nice to see young guys willing to travel and experience something different culturally too. One can only hope that going away at such a young age will help him develop personally/emotionally as well as in his football.
Sorry I fail to understand, what do you mean?
Garanteed 1. team football in France.
I think Ligue 1 would be a good level for him to have consistent game time and see if he has what it takes – I hope it’s a productive spell
Hope he Salibas it.
I think it’s a good move, better for his development and his valuation. Leno is also going to Fulham for £8m just been confirmed.
What do you guys think about Lokonga going out for a loan? If we’re pursuing that number 8 CM, do you think it’s better he goes out like Tavares or stays for the Europa League and cup competition run-outs?
I think Sambi needs to stay. He will get games in the cup competitions and I’m sure some PL minutes as well. I see him fitting into Arteta’s system and the minutes he gets in that system with us this season will do him good in future.
If an offer from a well established side came in asking for a loan, I think it would be much better for his development than a bit part involvement. Take the Saliba situation for example, he has come back now with some entitlement for first team football, and we’re all for it. You think he’d have that if we played him sparsely here and there in cup comps and Europa League? I don’t think so imo.
Also, I mean entitlement in a positive sense of him establishing himself, not in an arrogant way, just to clarify.
I would be interested to know what people think about Lokonga – I haven’t been excited or disappointed by him. I don’t know if Mikel thinks he’s not up to the job or whether he trusts him I don’t think I really remember how he’s been many of the times he’s played. £17m isn’t cheap and at soon to be 23 he’s not that young either..
I think he is pretty coolheaded and showed decent composure least season when given the chance, this harder to have in that position of his. Attacking players have more freedom and room for mistakes, put simply the tolerances of other positions are higher except for Lokonga’s and defenders because errors there have a higher risk of leading to conceding. The point being that his performances are very good for his age, I do think though, as a criticism he can be too conservative and doubts his instincts to initiate attacks sometimes or put in quality through balls to wingers. A… Read more »
Good loan for him and us, he needs to be starting.
I would expect a forward to come in for sure, in the 30m to 40m range.
A winger would depend on Pepe moving on, and probably a CM would depend on Xhaka or Lokonga going either permanently or on loan.
After a disappointing winter window what a great leap forward this feels, well done Edu et al
This looks like a good move for Balogun and Arsenal. The lad needs experience. Hopefully, a couple of seasons on loan and he’ll be ready for our first team. But now we must, must buy an experienced striker to replace him. Jesus and Nketia are not enough for a punishing long season. BTW: Am I the only Gooner who’s not that excited by the win yesterday? Before everyone goes mad let’s see what happens when we play proper competitive matches. Palace away on Friday will be a more realistic gauge of just how good we are. We have a nice… Read more »
Regardless of anything, why wouldn’t yesterday excite anyone? You’d have to be insane to not feel something after watching how we played. I think you’re a bit strange if you didn’t have any positive emotions from it imo.
Are you hearing yourself when you say things like ‘we have a nice easy start’. Really? You’ve got to show some respect to those teams, this isn’t FIFA career mode Mr. Fatman, with all due respect.
According to some fans on this site and others, we’re now as good as the 1970 Brazil World Cup-winning team. I’m just saying that we should be cautious until we’ve played a few proper competitive games. And if we want top four then we should be beating the likes of Palace and Leicester.
Who said that though? Cite me a source of one person who said we’re going to win a world cup this year.
If we lost yesterday you would definitely be the first to come out and throw arteta under the bus for not buying the right players in etc. Can’t have it both ways, just let people feel good about football and address those emotional issues of yours in your upcoming therapy sessions.
Pretty nasty comment
Pre-season friendly games are utterly meaningless: you don’t win anything. That’s why I didn’t give a shit about that defeat to Brentford either. Professional football is about winning things. That game on Saturday was as about as important as a kick around in my back garden.
This is like arguing with a child.
I think this is one of those situations where chatting on the internet makes people’s views seem completely insane/unreasonable.
I feel like if you were having the same conversation between the two of you, but face-to-face, you’d both think each other was being fairly reasonable, even if you disagree in principle.
I think we should all try to not take things in written form on the internet so strongly.
You’re so pessimistic it’s frightening.😳
I don’t think he’s being that pessimistic. Palace are going to be a completely different challenge to what we faced in preseason. I think we’re looking very good, but until we face a team like palace who had no problem negating our strengths last season we don’t know how much we’ve improved. We certainly won’t have the amount of space behind the defenses we had in preseason in premier league games.
Ruben Neves said we won the world cup.
And he didn’t like the fact that we celebrated it. 😂
😄
You will be a very hard to please person if you were a coach.
Regardless of the importance of the match, if yesterday’s performance didn’t excite you, it is possible you probably don’t have blood running through your veins.
i think its a strange move fats.
Would have preferred him on loan at a Palace or a brighton get some proper PL experience. Or at least a top top french club like OM.
Failing that 3rd choice for us!!
He won’t start every week even at a Palace or Brighton. At a club like Riems he will.
I actually think a loan to ligue 1 is better for him. He will get the game time (15-30 games that he wouldn’t have got in the epl) and his young physique will get time to develop naturally without the pressure and stress that the premier league demands (less chance for injuries). I think the 3 season loan to ligue 1 really benefited saliba physically. His big tall frame got the chance to develop naturally. Thats something that many tend to overlook with saliba situation. That’s might be be part of what arteta alluded to when he said “saliba wasn’t… Read more »
If you’re not excited by beating two recent European champions 10-0, you might as well say nothing in preseason is ever exciting.
Fatgooner, you are by far the most capable to attract downvotes. This is an ability, kind of!
It’s a gift.😄
Surely you mean those first FIVE PL games. Fifth game is Villa at home.
You are like Thomas in the Bible, Fatgooner.😄
Yep, this is exactly what the guy needs – regular football to develop and sharpen those goal instincts.
Will perhaps be another LANS a la Saliba, this time next year.
Let’s hope so.
Could be a loan with option. And someone who can cover the front line from left, Center to right.
Possibly someone a bit different, dominant aerially perhaps
I’m not sure we would have let him leave for the entire season unless Arteta/Edu were certain we had another goalscorer lined up.
Is it typical to have a recall option in the loan agreement, or is Balogun likely committed to Reims for the entire year?
Also, curious about the Premier Clubs Balogun turned down, and why. Perhaps playing time was less certain compared to Reims?
I imagine they’ll be a recall during the winter transfer window, so if it’s not working for either it can be cancelled
Question is rather, what if it is working? Cause if it isn’t working for him in France, he will be useless for us anyway for the 2nd part of the season since there will be no matches anymore against inferior opponents in EL or LC. We could just call him back to feature in PL2 to get playing time. More interesting is a situation where he scored 10+ goals there and we would need some kind of firepower as we are maybe short in numbers due to injury or just deem that we want the guy back cause he is… Read more »
That’s exactly right. The only question is what if it is working. Assume most full season loan agreements have recall clauses?
Also, great username. Are you by chance related to Tuck Fottenham?
Assurances on playing time I suppose.
He’s not gonna be playing week in week out at an EPL team.
Eddie & Jesus are not enough cover. We need a target man option as well for tactical flexibility. Jesus might struggle with some opponents setup
By a quirk of the fixture list, Balogun’s Reims first match of the season is against Tavares’ Marseille.
Just hope the Reims curse (as per The Jeff) doesn’t strike our Flo!
Hmm…I can’t get myself comfortable with the Balogun situation to be honest. He started last season as 4th choice striker and had to play in the first two games, two of those players in front of him have now left and we have only brought in one (so far) but he’s not been retained as a 4th striker option even if we buy or loan in another one, no progress in a year?, maybe gone backwards a bit on that basis?. Went on the Tour to the States, no mention of injury but didn’t get a minute in a game?,… Read more »
I am not sure if it is a step back, but the guy is a year older now and needs an appropriate amount of full time games in proper adult competition. Last year he had 11 games in PL2 and 14 goals, so it seems he is too good for that competition and it makes no sense to put him there again this season, even if he scores 30 goals in 15 games. Impressive numbers, but in the end useless. On the other hand at Boro, he had 3 goals in 18 games in the Championship, I guess that ratio… Read more »
Yeah maybe, thanks for replying Chuck but at 21 Eddie had come through the Club’s “undercard” (successfully) as Balogun had, been on loan and then came back and played in our winning FA Cup run plus some League games, last season he only played in Carabao games (again successfully) and waited patiently for his League opportunity at the end of the season which was also successful. Balogun not playing pre season games because of potential loans doesn’t compute for me either to be honest, Tavares played more minutes than anybody in The States and in the Brentford game and then… Read more »
My guess is that they didn’t really know what they had up front so they wanted to play Jesus/Eddie/Gabrielle to see how they meshed which didn’t leave much room for Flo. The other possibility is that they knew it wouldn’t be hard to work out a loan for a promising young player so they didn’t feel like they had to showcase him like maybe they did with Tavares.
Cheers Group Captain, you and Chuck are probably right