Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Mikel Arteta has been talking about Folarin Balogun and his loan move to Middlesbrough.
The striker was loaned out to the Championship last month after half a season impressing with the U23s.
However, despite the fact many had called for Balogun to be loaned out in the past, one journalist asked Arteta whether or not he regrets letting the forward go due to the departure of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Arteta says that he’s very pleased with his decision to let Balogun go, claiming that it wasn’t fair to keep him at the club when he couldn’t guarantee him minutes.
What’s Arteta said?
Arteta gave his view on loaning Balogun out.
“With Flo especially and the amount of minutes that he played here, and the level that he shows when we could only play with the under 23s, it’s not fair. We want to develop that player, to maximise his potential – which is huge. We have to try to expose the player as quickly as possible to the level that he needs to be exposed. I was really confident that for him it was the right option, and he was convinced. So when that happens we have to let the player go and evolve,” Arteta said.
Had to give him a chance
While the Aubameyang situation has changed things on the striker front for Arsenal, loaning Balogun out was still the right move.
Let’s be honest, Balogun would still have been the Gunners’ third-choice striker if he’d stayed, and he wouldn’t have been able to play that many minutes in that role.
Meanwhile, at Boro he’s going to get plenty of valuable first-team experience that will surely serve him well once he returns next summer.
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