Arsenal have important Balogun & Lacazette decision to make

Looking across this Arsenal team it’s easy to feel disheartened. It’s full of players keeping the floor frighteningly low and until plenty of them depart it will remain grounded. Equally, there are players like Folarin Balogun who totally mirror those emotions.

His contract extension was the bright note in an otherwise dim April in which Villarreal dumped Arsenal out of the Europa League. Unsavoury negotiations had taken the sting out of the excitement around Balogun’s potential, but the eventual conclusion signalled a new chapter.

With a brand new No. 26 jersey and a place in the senior squad looking like his, what he offers in pre-season will be an encouraging indicator of what impact he could have in the coming campaign.

It was only 45 minutes in the first game of pre-season but ‘Flo’ gave another strong account of himself as he had done previously in the group stages of the 2020/21 Europa League. Fiercely strong, adept at finding space and bursting with confidence to takes shots on, early signs are a bright future for the 19-year-old.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has an important Folarin Balogun and Alexandre Lacazette decision to make in summer transfer window

Where should the immediate segment of his career be, though?

Mikel Arteta knows he can’t shunt Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang out to the left-wing anymore. At his age and using the painful samples from last season, that option is no longer viable. That means a first choice centre-forward role for him next season with Gabriel Martinelli set to take up the second choice spot.

The Brazilian could be late to the party due to his involvement with Brazil at the Olympics yet the signs have been over recent months that moulding him into a centre-forward is among Arteta’s plans.

He may not play as a No. 9 every week and merely having the option to field him there if needs be could be on the agenda. Equally, while he hasn’t perfected it yet and time will be needed which he sadly won’t get in pre-season, he’s still the more experienced pick ahead of Balogun.

Looking at the options it’ll be Aubameyang, Martinelli and Balogun, in that order. A list that, quite clearly, discounts Alexandre Lacazette.

And the question of what happens to him has been an ever-present. The regular season was awash with rumours one week of him being kept on and the other certain to be sold.

Now pre-season has begun with him and Cedric even training together out in Portugal with the Arsenal physio ahead of the trip to Scotland, a sale seems some way off. There comes an important decision to make.

Continued…