Our view: Arsenal in dilemma over Folarin Balogun, may have lost final chance to cash in

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Arsenal ended the window in style, bringing in Thomas Partey at the very last minute having spent most of 2020 pursuing him.

Fans are understandably excited to see Partey in action, with the Ghanaian seemingly the ideal player to come in and bolster Mikel Arteta’s midfield.

The rest of deadline day was pretty quiet for Arsenal, with Lucas Torreira heading to Atletico Madrid, and notably no move for Folarin Balogun.

The striker was heavily linked with leaving Arsenal, and Sheffield United failed with a cheeky £3million bid according to the Daily Mail, with the Gunners seeking an astonishing £15million.

Balogun didn’t end up leaving Arsenal, meaning the Gunners now find themselves in something of a tricky situation ahead of the January window.

The 19-year-old racked up 10 goals and four assists in 15 Premier League 2 games last season, showing his quality in the final third without receiving a single first-team appearance.

Balogun is out of contract next summer, and will be able to sign a pre-contract agreement with a non-English club in January if he so wishes, meaning Arsenal would receive a fraction of the £15million they wanted.

So what now? Balogun has been spotted in first-team training of late, and maybe promising a first-team role will help change the striker’s mind, as he needs to see a pathway to first-team action.

There has been a stand-off between Balogun and Arsenal over the summer, and Arsenal are now left with a dilemma; do they give him a chance in the hope of keeping him, whilst risking putting him in the shop window, or continue to hold him out of first-team reckoning?

Only time will tell, but Arsenal have now lost their final chance to sell Balogun for big money as things stand. Come January, Arsenal are unlikely to receive anything close to £3million for the striker, and a pre-contract deal with a non-English may only be a tenth of that.

Arsenal understandably don’t want to lose Balogun without a team-friendly deal in place, but that prospect has likely gone now – and clubs around Europe will surely have noticed that he didn’t leave the Emirates Stadium on deadline day.