If he was a better “starter” for us he wouldn’t have left the club.
The club doesn’t let talent they rate go. Let’s be real, if Arteta really wanted him to stay, he would have stayed. Mikel has blocked countless moves for players. He’s even done this for guys like Ainsley, Rob, Hector and Sead who at points were with one foot out the door.
Whether Flo proves him wrong is something we’ll find out in due course.
Basically there is going to be whinging every time he scores a goal.
It was not Arteta wanting him to stay or not
It was Balogun wanted a starting position and requested to leave.
And we have various of examples of players wanting to leave that Arteta didn’t, which always resulted in Arteta getting his way in the end.
If Arteta really rated him that highly, he would’ve been at Arsenal still.
Based on how he’s used them, Arteta rates Eddie higher than Flo.
Whinging? Personally I’m already at near complete meltdown over the matter. Thank you very much.
Whilst it’s true that Arteta does typically get his way with his words. Balogun was adamant about moving, his social media posts during pre-season were not the best. He came out publicly and said he doesn’t want to go on loan again, he wants to start every week.
Also because he had an excellent loan spell, his valuation skyrocketed, hence why we were able to sell him for £34m. As expressed either, Eddie couldn’t command a £34m+ bid from any club.
I wonder what Arteta would’ve done if two bids of equal value came in for Flo & Eddie. All things being equal, I can see a world where Eddie would’ve left and Balo stayed, but again it would be hard cause if the player wants to leave, you can’t do much to keep them here.
Arteta said it before a few yrs ago:
“It doesn’t need much convincing and if they do, for me it’s not a good starting point. If I have to convince a player to stay or to join us. To Arsenal? It holds me back a little bit.”
Also, even though Arteta appears to rate Eddie highly.. the rumours & reports that we’re in for a striker suggests one of Eddie/Jesus may be moving on (likely Eddie), especially if one of Toney, Ferguson, Osimhen is who we’re looking at bringing in.
This thread is going to be like the Serge Gnabry thread on acid every time Balogun does something remotely good.
I agree. We need to move on. We got a good fee for him and he will do well in France.
He’ll have a better career than Eddie but it is what it is, he wanted to be a starter and we couldn’t offer that.
Yups, and when Arsenal are looking for a new striker in a few yrs and we go back in for Balogun (if he turns out to be world class), we’ll likely need to pay in excess of £100m for him.
Not a bad thing by any means, but something to think about.
If we buy him back we get a percentage of our own transfer fee right? 
I wanted to get in first
Another goal
We won’t regret selling him… will we?
A striker that misses 2 pens in the same game is not serious. Close this thread.
He was always the more talented player than Eddie.
But as has been said he wasn’t willing to be a rotational player at all.
Balogun is still young. I bet he’ll be a world beater by 25 and will cost nothing less than £150m.
I echo this.
He’s no longer our player. Any argument is futile.
Its a choice whether to regret it or not anyway. I don’t care what he does to be honest, there is zero guarantee he’d have done the same here.
And no the thread won’t be closed. Scroll down, hit mute.
He scored. Initiating sulking
The thread was moved to former gunners which is appropriate.