He hasn’t played a competitive minute yet. He hasn’t even stepped on the pitch or even made the bench since an insipid display against the MLS All-Stars back in July. That’s three pointless friendlies, one glorified friendly, and two Prem matches since we’ve seen Folarin Balogun lace up boots. Rumour has it that Chelsea are eager to sign him. Whether that eagerness signals awareness of an actual need or the antics of a meth-addled addict desperate for his next score is anyone’s guess. At this point, I say, let’s do it. Sell ’em.
We’ve been down this road altogether too many times, whether it’s Tottenham or Monaco or Inter. I’m at the point of selling Balogun to anyone as long as the fee is satisfactory. Whether he’s been banished for pushing for a transfer or for sulking or anything else, it’s long past time to fish. It’s time to cut bait (to fish would mean to continue to feel out options; to cut bait would mean to give up and move on). It’s starting to feel like the latter option is the likelier one.
For one, Nketiah continues to flirt with being productive. Against Palace, he did squirt one shot past the keeper only to be denied by the post. After that, having been put through on goal by Rice, he dinked over the keeper…and the crossbar. It’s true that he did make the most of some contact from Palace’s keeper to earn the penalty that we’d need to secure the three points…but, on balance, it’s hard to come away believing that he’s the answer to our prayers.
If Balogun can’t supplant Nketiah in training, well, that says a lot about Balogun. Nketiah, after all, is a short-term stop-gap at best, someone you summon for early League Cup matches or dead-rubber Champions League matches or, well, or when no one else is available. The fact that Arteta hasn’t seen fit to select Balogun even as so much as a sub is telling. There’s something lacking in Balogun’s approach.
Arteta has, after all, promoted Saka, Martinelli, and Saliba to the first team. He’s convinced Ødegaard, Rice, and Partey to commit to the club. In short, he has an eye for the kind of player this club needs in order to compete for the highest honours. If Arteta trusts Nketiah more than he trusts Balogun, well, that suggests that Nketiah is more-committed to competing and fighting and, well, winning. At some level or another, it seems, Balogun is not committed to the same competing or fighting or winning. If it’s true that there’s something lacking in his mindset, we should certainly sell him.
After all, we all know that this club has spent altogether too much time coddling too many enfants terribles. If Balogun is discontent, let him trod the path paved by Omari Hutchinson, another whose green-eyed gazungas led him astray.
I tire of this saga. Sell him. Here, there, anywhere. It matters not.
Whether Balogun is actually not up to the standard that Arteta wants and, therefore, is never to see the role he aspires to or whether, as many believe, he does not possess the attitude that will ever endear him to Arteta, it is evident that we will never know as long as he and Arteta remains at Arsenal. The data is mixed given that his success was in France and not on loan to a lesser PL side. Obviously, if he was the second coming of… (filling the blank), bids for his services would approach the prices we have been seeing of late. Admittedly, not too long ago, 40 million was a staggering amount, but no longer. That the market is telling us ( and Balogun) a number less than 50 and there seems no bidding war, one has to trust that a sufficient number of observers have seen, or not seen, something in his play, as well as his demeanor.
BTW, since nobody has offered a bid close to the Arsenal price, one does have to wonder whether even Arsenal have an underlying, but unstated belief of his value, but that MA insists he be sent off. We’re he truly of little value, why not just sell him as we may soon do with a few others?
That said, it might have been nice to see a true test of his abilities on the pitch this summer especially, as Jon concedes, Eddie is not the answer waiting in the wings, either. Since we will never see an unbiased trial, it may well be, as Jon writes, time to cut him loose. However, there remains that gnawing feeling, if not dread, that every Arsenal supporter possesses, that Arteta might be wrong or acting petulantly, for reasons only hinted at. If so, and I am one filled with dread, I do not want him at Chelsea, unless of course, he is a Trojan horse, whose attitude and ability will corrode, undermine, and rot the Blues from within and leave them in mid-table or lower, while Todd’s money goes to waste again. Let him go to Monaco, no doubt for less than 50, which we will not get from Chelsea either, or convince one of the sheikhs that he only needs to be playing on patchy grass in hot and dry stadia, to bring out his best, even if “only” for 40 million, but do not leave him in England. If by chance, he proves Arteta right, so be it, but if not, let him not be within sight of our side or in a position to hurt us going forward.
first and foremost, unless the fee is considerably larger, and I mean considerably, I would much rather he plied his trade abroad…based on recent history, we’ve sadly become Chelsea’s trash bin, pre-Arabia of course, so if they’re sniffing around it might be prudent on our part to either keep the player in question and offload Eddie, if that’s even a possibility considering the ridiculous wage he’s been gifted, or get him the f*** out of our backyard
btw it’s not surprising whatsoever that we’re in this predicament, as I was convinced he would never find his way here so long as Arteta ruled the roost due to the acrimonious nature of his last re-upping…Arteta has proven himself to be an incredibly vindictive man, as we’ve witnessed on numerous occasions, so even though on his first real loan spell he lit it up, he likely would have needed to pot 40 to change the present dynamic, and only then because a large contingent of the fanbase would have gone full Saliba on his a**
once again I must take issue with your sugar-coated/cherry-picked takes when it comes to our manager…to say that MA promoted Saka, Marts and Saliba to the first team is such a disingenuous statement, especially without providing considerably more context…Saka was already embedded before MA’s arrival, Marts wasn’t even on his radar, thus the reason why he had to go to social media to correct factitous injury reports emanating from MA so as to incite his personal supporters, and we all know if it was up to Arteta, Saliba would already be donning another kit…just keeping it real
You really are an egotistical, miserable so and so. Have a lovely life.
clearly you must live alone in a mirrorless house Mr. Pot…good luck with that