Arsenal: 4 players impacted by Folarin Balogun contract

Arsenal succeeded in lifting the mood ever so slightly following the 1-1 draw with Slavia Prague in the Europa League after it was revealed that Folarin Balogun is set to pen a new four-year contract in north London.

The 19-year-old, filed neatly into the ‘contract rebel’ folder as is common practice in such situations, appeared destined for a summer departure after months of negotiations over a new deal rumbled on with an amicable conclusion.

Cited as not seeing a clear path into the first team, regular comments from Mikel Arteta publicly about the situation countered those spread across the media.

Folarin Balogun was free to speak to clubs from January onwards and sign a pre-contract agreement with his deal expiring, with some sources stating a move had been arranged with a side on mainland Europe.

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Arsenal: 4 players impacted by Folarin Balogun contract ahead of summer transfer window

Arteta, meanwhile, spoke candidly of the situation explaining that the striker’s agent was making talks difficult to carry out with wages and assurances preventing Balogun from putting pen to paper, despite the Spaniard’s confidence and the Hale Ender’s desire to stay.

Now set to imminently pen a deal until 2025 after shunning the likes of Bayer Leverkusen, Balogun has been given assurances of integration into the first team with Arteta and Edu succeeding in convincing him that his future is in north London.

An announcement is penciled in for Tuesday, with the impact of this decision having a knock-on effect to four other players in the squad.

The centre-forward dilemma facing the club in the summer has taken one step towards amending.

Eddie Nketiah

Standout among all of those affected is Eddie Nketiah, who has gone from playing some part in 12 of the opening 14 Premier League fixtures and starting in each of the Europa League group stage matches to not playing a single minute for the first team since late January up until Sunday.

He was on the pitch for a full one minute in the 0-0 draw with Manchester United, being with the Under-23 side, on the bench or not with the squad up until Sheffield United, where he played two minutes.the l

The future of the 21-year-old was already the source of speculation prior to the recent developments, but Balogun’s new deal has the writing on the wall for his fellow teammate at the end of the season.

Interestingly enough both Balogun and Nketiah have the same agent, thus the decision to tie the former down will have been done with an idea on the latter’s future as well.

Opting against loaning him out in January for whatever reason, a summer sale is expected to take place with Nketiah’s value having taken a hit, as with one year left on his deal unless he’s signed to a longer contract and loaned out it appears the only eventuality. With Balogun coming through there is no room for Nketiah, so a loan makes no sense.

There should be takers, albeit not at the price Arsenal originally would have liked.