Arsenal facing Folarin Balogun & Eddie Nketiah decision

For a regime that regularly discusses the importance of its youthful core, Arsenal have mismanaged much of their emerging talent at a worrying rate.

Eddie Nketiah had to be sold during the summer window. There was talk of a fee being agreed with Crystal Palace and the move only breaking down over unknown personal terms, but with known interest all summer it shouldn’t have taken deadline day for those discussions to reach that stage.

It’s not just Arsenal wanting to accrue some money for a player no longer in the manager’s plans; for Nketiah’s sake too, the striker needs to be playing games at this stage of his career. Nobody with an affiliation to the club dislikes, he seems like a lovely bloke, and happy players are better players no matter which club they’re at.

Opting against including him in the Ben White deal was an error and failing to strike a deal at a realistic price – £20m was far too high to be starting off at – falls on the club. He needed to go.

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Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta facing Folarin Balogun and Eddie Nketiah striker decision after not securing transfer moves away for young duo

So too did Folarin Balogun.

The striker started the season up top against Brentford with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette unavailable and despite a performance that demonstrated his inexperience, there is still absolute faith in him to be a success.

When the pair returned from their respective COVID-19 absences, Balogun went missing. Not in the sense he was marked out of a game by a defender or didn’t turn up to training, but in the case of him not being selected at all.

Before the season began it was Carabao Cup second round ties where everyone thought he would be given the chance to impress. He wasn’t even in the squad. Another example of the club mismanaging young talent as a loan would have unquestionably been more beneficial to his development.

And so, with the window closed, both are still on the books.

Mikel Arteta, despite courting the likes of Lautaro Martinez and Tammy Abraham over the summer, has four centre-forwards to choose from, one of whom will be starting every Premier League game that he is fit for.

It poses something of a dilemma for the length of time that Nketiah remains at Arsenal, whether that is six or 12 months.

Continued…