Arsenal fans have taken to Twitter to react after Albert Sambi Lokonga spoke to RTBF about his start to life in the Premier League with Arsenal.
What’s the story?
Well, Lokonga made an interesting claim about Mikel Arteta when speaking about his start to life in north London.
The £15m signing from Anderlecht said: “The manager speaks to me a lot, I like that, but he doesn’t let me rest. I was told that he’d said my integration and my performances impressed him. Good, but next year, he’ll see an even better Sambi!”
For a 22-year-old, Lokonga speaks incredibly well, and he seems to have the maturity to go very, very far in football.
It’s also good to hear that Arteta doesn’t let him rest, as demanding as that may sound from the Spaniard.
As we’ve seen with Dele Alli, it can be very easy for youngsters to buy into their own hype and consequently stop delivering the goods.
In Lokonga’s case, we wouldn’t worry about that happening.
Arteta clearly trusts him, having given him 12 appearances already this season, and why wouldn’t he? After all, the Belgian was occasionally given the captaincy at Anderlecht, despite his age.
Arsenal need more signings like Albert Sambi Lokonga
He is yet to show his best stuff at Arsenal, but Lokonga is exactly the type of player Edu needs to find more often.
The wonderkid was a leader at Anderlecht, and was also relatively unknown given the lack of coverage the Jupiler Pro League receives in England.
As a result, he didn’t cost an eye-watering sum, and with a good season under his belt, he could be worth £40m – £50m in no time.
After all, Kevin De Bruyne, Romelu Lukaku and Christian Benteke came from the Jupiler Pro League, which bodes well for Lokonga.
For now, let’s see what the Arsenal fans on Twitter have been saying about his comments…
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