Emmanuel Petit thinks Arsenal will sell starlet Folarin Balogun following his impressive loan spell at Reims.
Balogun has enjoyed a fantastic breakthrough season in France, recording 19 goals and three assists in 32 games – only Jonathan David, Kylian Mbappe and Alexandre Lacazette have scored more in Ligue 1.
Few could have expected the striker to be that prolific, having scored just five times in his 30 senior appearances prior to this campaign, and the 21-year-old is now the talk of the town with both his club and international futures up in the air.
Though he currently plays for the England U21s, there has been a lot of talk about him switching allegiance to the USA having been born in New York and snubbed by Gareth Southgate during the last international break.
But perhaps more pressingly, there is the matter of whether he’ll stay at Arsenal or not, as Mikel Arteta already has a great supply of forward talent at the Emirates.
Balogun, who has two years left on his contract, has been linked with a number of different clubs across Europe, most notably RB Leipzig who are on the hunt for a replacement for Chelsea-bound Christopher Nkunku.
And Petit believes Arsenal could take advantage of this come the summer, telling Legal Sportsbooks: ‘I don’t know if they will continue with the strikers they have. They’ve got Eddie Nketiah and Gabriel Jesus.
‘Florian Balogun I think will be put on the market to be sold. There are so many clubs in France, and not just in France, who are very interested in him.’
Arsenal are expected to want around £40million for Balogun, which will go someway to funding their summer transfer plans, with Petit claiming that his former side ‘need four or five new players in the team’ if they are to build on this season’s success.
He added: ‘In midfield I think they need to add at least two players. Someone who can play in [Martin] Odegaard’s position. We’ve got [Emile] Smith-Rowe but he hasn’t had much playing time in the last few months.
‘A central defender as well. When you look at the big teams in Europe they’ve got four strong defenders to choose from. You need to have some competition for players to earn their place.
‘They’ve got two right backs but [Takehiro] Tomiyasu has been injured for such a long time. Ben White has been tremendous but you cannot expect players not to be injured during the season.
‘[Gabriel] Martinelli has been tremendous and [Bukayo] Saka as well, but you can feel, especially with Saka, that he’s been tired recently. [Leandro] Trossard can play as a right winger or as a left winger but you probably need one more player that can play on the wings.’
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