Arsenal are on the brink of tying Folarin Balogun down to a new deal.
According to The Daily Mail, the 19-year-old Arsenal hitman has snubbed offers from 15 other clubs to commit his long-term future to the Gunners.
It’s a piece of very good news for the North London when you consider how it looked nailed-on that they were going to lose a big talent for absolutely nothing in a couple of months.
But it’s bad news for Eddie Nketiah.
The 21-year-old striker is already something of an also-ran under Arteta these days and has barely kicked a ball for Arsenal in the Premier League this calendar year.
Arteta labelled him ‘extraordinary‘ only last summer, but the Spaniard has seemingly gone cold on the Hale End academy graduate and if Balogun is sticking around, it’ll almost certainly be at the expense of Nketiah.
Balogun wouldn’t be staying unless he had concrete assurances that he’d play more senior football next season and that means leapfrogging Nketiah in the pecking order over the summer.
Thing is, Nketiah is 21 and simply has to play regular football next season and beyond, but Balogun’s imminent extension means it clearly won’t happen under Arteta and therefore Edu, Arsenal’s technical director, is probably already looking for buyers.
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