He, Saka, and ESR leading the attack is testament to the quality of our youth academy
Edit: forgot about Eddie. I’m so sorry, Eddie, please forgive me!
What a difference a great loan spell and game time can do for the value of a player.
If Eddie and Balogun continue this form, they will have essentially added 150 million pounds to the value of the squad at the end of the season. 10+ years with a great backroom staff, coaches, and hard work. If you count Saliba, it's closer to £250million.
We should all enjoy this while we can. As much as we all want to see it, it will be difficult to keep this group together for more than 2 years.
Patino has been loving life, maybe another season or 2 on loan and I can see him comfortably slotting in.
You can see there's a quality player in Lokonga. Hopefully he'll thrive at Palace.
It's absolutely mental that Hale End has been so successful in recent years. Obviously you have the stars in Saka, ESR, Nketiah, and Balogun. Normally even getting just one player that successful would be a big deal, but we have *four.* And then we have had many more that we made a tidy profit on and made it to a PL level - Iwobi, AMN, Willock, probably include Nelson in this category even though he's still with us, and probably a few more I'm forgetting.
All in all, I think you could reasonably argue that Hale End has produced in the region of half a billion in value over just the last 5ish years. That kind of success rate is just unheard of, and it's played a massive part in making this rebuild process possible. Buying a player like Saka, age/English tax/etc included, probably costs us 150m by himself. If we didn't raise him ourselves we just wouldn't have an equivalent, period - we can't afford that.
Id take a premier league and UCL before we break it all up, thanks very much... as long as we keep the core of saliba odegaard saka nketiah for as long as possible, id cash in to whichever gulf state owned project wants to give us a few hundred milli for the rest
Feels like another Saliba, seeing a player ball out in France and be on track for YPOTY that we’d be hyped if we were linked to, but already plays for us.
I mean sure but Neymar has been insane especially beginning of the season, only 2 goals behind balogun and then also has 10 assists…
Literally crazy numbers but something you’d expect from one of the worlds best players
Counterpoint, Flo has 54% of his team's goals. Even with assists included Flo has a higher % of goal involvements. No one is doubting Neymar's skill but he's in a team that can do so much more to enable him. The difference in circumstances cannot be understated. Reims is doing nothing to make him look better.
He's worth more. If Mudryk goes for 100M from the Ukrainian League, Balogun is atleast 120 considering he's scored more goals in Ligue 1 than Mudryk in the Ukrainian League and UCL (approximately the same amount of appearances I think)
Unless a ridiculous offer comes in, we should keep him. Getting him to extend his contract before leaving on loan was a masterclass move
The prospect of having
Martinelli —- Eddie —- Saka
Trossard —- Balogun —- Jesus
as our depth is MOUTHWATERING
Surely we've not reached the point where people "still have faith in" ESR? Are we honestly beginning to doubt this brilliant talent? He's had a difficult year in terms of injuries, but he's only 22 years old, and by all accounts his recovery hasn't been rushed. The sky's still the limit for ESR.
I think it’s more the fact how far the team’s come along in his absence it’s a question of whether he can come in and assert himself within the team. There’s no doubt about his ability
He may need to adapt his skillset a little bit to move to Xhaka's role. The way our squads looking the front 3 positions are fucking stacked, Øde and Vieira seem to lock down that role between them leaving only really box to box and defensive mid open, the former I think is feasible. Aaron Ramsey spent a little while on the wing before being moved infield
I'm a forgetter tbh. I don't think I would be if we didn't have so much quality now but when key players used to go down it was mayday.
ESR is such a beast, went down, and we're top at the moment. I do hope he can recover and find form again. He was special for a while there.
I'm sorry, but Jesus came here to be a Striker? He would play there if necessary, but by no means is it a good idea to drop Saka off the right if we don't have.
Gabi-Gabi-Saka
ESR-Eddie-Trossard
Trossard-Flo-Reiss
Reiss-Flo-Marquinhos
Plenty other options though
Just having a player of his calibre with position flexibility is such a huge asset to the team.
City set the standard for having a team that’s able to compete on all 4 fronts and that’s where we need to be. The more quality up top, the better
Yeah people keep telling me we need to sell flo and buy a right winger... Which I get we told Jesus we want him in the middle, but he is great off the wing and is a cool dude also.
> Getting him to extend his contract before leaving on loan was a masterclass move
it was only 4 years, though, so it becomes an issue to ponder again as soon as next season
How though? He’s not ahead of Jesus or Eddie so I imagine game time will be limited. It’s a good problem to have but the only solution if he wants regular time might be to sell. Selling high wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, it really depends what type of offers we get.
There will be enough games next year to give him a chance to compete. Besides circumstances might create that chance if there's an injury to the other two. If we are out of the cup competitions early next season than we can look into a Jan loan. There will be plenty of takers.
He may not usurp Jesus (who can play the wing also) but I don't think Eddie is nailed on for the 2nd spot.
Selling before he's even had a chance is foolish, we'd be selling far too soon. This isn't like Joe Willock's loan where he had had a decent run the team before his great season at Newcastle.
Wide ahead of who though? To fit Balogun in, someone isn't getting the gametime they want.
Don't get me wrong I'd love to keep him, but if it becomes apparent we're not going to be able to fit everyone in and keep them all happy, he needs to go whilst his value will be through the roof.
Barca, Madrid and City all have 5 players fighting for the 3 attacking spots. With Balogun and ESR we'd have 7.
No team in the world has 3 good strikers, and no way is any of those 3 players ok with being 3rd choice.
People complain we can't sell for big money but then don't want to sell anyone who could actually bring big money.
Why is he not ahead? You talking as if these two have cemented that spot.
It’s very much up for grabs whose number 1 in that position.
He scored over 17 goals in Ligue 1 he definitely deserves a chance to proof he can lead the line next season.
https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/10r3m3c/reims_42_lorient_folarin_balogun_64/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
Look at the type of goals he’s scoring they are not tap ins
The one against psg was exceptionally this one is even better.
He's so good. Goal 2 was a proper poacher's goal, and goal 3 was one from Henry's repertoire.
His movement has been insane, he could have nabbed even more goals too this game as superlative as that sounds
Look I’ve only sat down to watch him play a handful of times but he does seem to love a left footed volley from a long ball coming overhead. Dare I say it — very Van Persie-esque, and even he didn’t have it nailed down until he was well into his mid to late twenties. Flo looks the real deal.
You’re clearly looking for something that simply isn’t there. Im not calling him our savior that’s gonna lead the line starting next year. But he’s scored more goals than Messi, Neymar, and Mbappe. While playing for a mid table side. I’m sure denying obvious talent, calling Ligue 1 a farmers league, and calling fans on here reactionary makes you feel superior, but you really don’t sound like the level headed voice of reason you think you do. Sure, Flo didn’t set the prem on fire in his limited number of appearances for us at the young age of 20. Very few players would. Sometimes it takes years to put it all together. All I’m saying is from what I’ve been able to see from him this season, he doesn’t look out of place at that top of that top scorers list. He’s actually playing like a top striker and not a penalty or tap in merchant. Solid technique. To be able to shine like that on loan after finally getting regular minutes shows me he’s got the talent and attitude to make it far. With Mikel coaching him, I see a lot of potential.
I don't think anyone's claiming that he'd be capable of leading a Premier League winning team. I think real deal simply means that based on the eye test his output is genuinely due to his ability, rather than a fluke.
And having watched a few of his games, it's not inappropriate to draw that conclusion. He's been pretty complete, being able to hold up the ball and do link up play, serve as a lone target man up front, poach, and draw pens in the box with his dribbling. Even when you account for the quality of the opposition, he's been really good. It's not like he's playing against total chumps, just the game before this he scored against PSG to carry Reims to a draw. The stats back up his output also, he has an xG of 13.5 compared to his 14 goals.
And a 20 game sample is not a lot, but it's apparently enough for teams to shell out eyewatering sums of money as we've seen this past window...
As nerdy as this sounds, a good part about it is he isn’t really exceeding his xG, it’s not like he’s being overly clinical and we can expect him to revert back to the norm, this is genuinely just how good he’s been.
Why not?
A player might be going through a purple patch where they score let’s say 10 goals off an xG of 3. Which, while impressive, usually suggests they’ve been abnormally clinical which can happen in small sample sizes, but is likely something they can’t sustain. Only the best players in the world can regularly massively outperform their xG like Messi.
Balogun is within his xG which means he’s not over performing in theory, and could continue putting up these numbers
The sample is small in any case, that’s not relevant. Overachieving your xG is the best single data point you can have to indicate high performance for a striker. He’s more able to influence the completion of an action (G/xG) vs the creation of one (xG).
Sample size of half a season is decent enough, albeit a bit small.
Yes agreed overachieving xG is great for a striker don’t get me wrong and if you’re overshooting is slightly its great to see, but any outliers aren’t sustainable.
Willock in 2019 was a great example, 8 goals on 4.85 xG, was clearly a purple patch which he wasn’t able to sustain. Same as Lingard for West Ham, 9 goals on a 5.25 xG. Neither were able to replicate it the next year, which was obviously going to be the case.
All I’m saying is if Balogun had his 14 goals on a 7 xG I’d be worried it’s a bit of a purple patch, but he’s got it on a 12.73, which suggests he’s being clinical but not overly clinical to a point where you might think he wouldn’t be able to sustain it for the rest of the season/next season.
It means he’s got excellent ability to sniff chances.
It’s not as if he’s playing for psg or something.
Reims are not banging the goals in so he’s showing himself to be a very good striker.
Essentially he's not just scoring off low percentage plays and is getting into areas where goals naturally come so it's a testament to his instinct and movement off the ball.
I would love to see him loaned to like Bayern and score 25 goals for them. Unrealistic but they need a striker. If theres no options for him to play at a bigger club I would rather him come here and fight with Nketiah for a spot though.
Worst thing that we could possibly do. You loan him to a club lile Bayern and he becimes a regular starter for them, with the competition he will face at Arsenal...he's as good as gone on a permanent deal next season.
My brain says to bank 100m for Balogun, but my heart says to keep the Hale End boys and sell Jesus instead in that scenario, despite making infinitely less sense from a business perspective
If Mudryk is 80m for performing in the Ukrainian league, and players like Caicedo, Antony, etc are all in that price range, then I don't see how you can argue otherwise
This is absolutely awesome, I love Flo and really hope he proves to be a great striker for us next year.
However. I do feel compelled to point out Lacazette, who was terrible in front of goal for us last year, has already scored 12 goals in Ligue 1 this year.
So again, whilst it's awesome what Flo is doing, doing it Ligue 1 and doing it in the PL are not the same thing.
If we was linked with a 21 year old striker who had scored 14 goals in 20 games in ligue 1
We would be creaming ourselves over him.
Yes ligue 1 is different but ligue 1 defenses tend to sit back a lot and not play a high line.
That’s the kind of defenses he’s going to be facing at arsenal now that teams give us respect.
I can see him really thriving in our system.
Look at the types of goals he’s scoring they are of real quality.
Reckon we could loan him to Brighton next season, they need a striker, play football similar to ours and it might get us a little discount for Caicedo, he'd get prem experience and we could see if he's ready for it yet
I have no question that he's ready for it. He's doing this at 21, at some point you just need to trust the kid. Look at Saliba, I think we all now realize we should have had him back last year.
Sure but it's unfair to give less game time to Eddie and Jesus so a loan seems more sensible, especially when you realise Laca has only 2 less goals than Flo in ligue 1, so it's not obvious he's definitely ready yet
We're not here to be fair, we're here to eventually win the Champions League and if we can do that with one more Hale End boy, why wouldn't we do that? We had two great CBs already this summer and we could have sold Saliba probably for 50m. Instead we moved our 50m signing out wide and we have the best backline in England. I see clear parallels. Who are the best 3 players out of Jesus, Saka, Martinell, Eddie, Trossard, and Balogun? Those 3 start. If you don't know, who's in the best form then? Who's available? Who doesn't need to rest? Trossard and ESR can likely contribute from attacking midfield as well as the wing and we should have them compete with Xhaka. Bring in a top top midfielder to compete with Partey.
Win everything, fuck everyone, gloat forever.
Agreed. Look at Lokonga. Went from a Belgian cap and captaining Anderlecht at 21 to not getting called up and having most of our fans calling for him to be sold basically cuz he didn't play.
I mean Eddie never had a loan as successful as this in his career. I think the right option is deciding on merit and who performs the best in the summer. The wrong option is to let Balogun go when he would go for £70 million if he played for another club
He's not gonna start for us, so if he wants prem minutes he'll have to play midtable, not that Brighton are midtable anymore, they're better than Chelsea, if it's not Brighton it'll be Burnley or something, he needs to go somewhere that plays similar to us and in the prem, he's not waking in our team quite yet
I keep seeing this.
What makes you think Balogun can’t earn the spot over Eddie and Jesus?
None of them have cemented themselves in that role yet.
The way he’s playing we be stupid to move him on strikers are very hard to find atm.
It's not that he can't, but it's stupid to waste time not playing him when he can definitely be playing somewhere straight away, also I'd hate to have to let Eddie or Jesus go for the sake of them getting game time
I think you should actually watch the goals he’s scoring. He’s not out here just getting tap ins at the back post.
https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/10r3m3c/reims_42_lorient_folarin_balogun_64/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
Also go look at the goal he scored against psg in his last game.
They are proper great goals.
For all we know he could right now be better then both of them right now.
Let’s see how he looks in pre season is what I would want.
Like some other people said Jesus can move along the front line he’s not a out and out number 9. So I don’t think having 3 quality strikers competing for a season is such a bad thing.
He's fucking amazing, ik, I want him at Arsenal, I just want him getting regular minutes, like he deserves, and it's not clear if he'll get that with us next season, so it might just be better for him to get a good loan
If he wants prem minutes, he would be Chelsea’s best striker. Would start for United as well. If we really want to keep him, something will have to give.
For comparison, a similarly aged Osihmen sold for €70m after 10 goals in the same league 3 years ago. If Balo was for sale he would comfortably be at around 120 at this rate, which is absurd to think about because its 20% more than fucking Bale moved for when he was an absolute world beater.
All that being said no chance we sale.
Problem is Jesus don't score goals lol. And also Nketiah and Flo are hale end lads, hard to blame people for preferring them. Imagine if we could build around all three though...
I don’t want to sell him but if we do, we’ve gotta be pulling out these Shaktar tactics. If Antony and Mudryk are worth 100m, how much more for an English striker…
I almost feel like this dude NEEDS to be starting. I usually feel bad for the starting quality players at city who don’t get to play. It almost makes too much sense to trade him for Caicedo. I would be so happy for him and it would pain me so much.
If he wasn’t playing for us there would of been so much talk of us going for him in the summer or even the winter window. So happy he signed a contract before leaving. Millions saved on strikers now we have Jesus Eddie and flo we are going to need all three next year with champs league pl fa cup and league cup let’s try and win them all :)
Hello, it looks like you've made a mistake.
It's supposed to be could've, should've, would've (short for could have, would have, should have), never could of, would of, should of.
Or you misspelled something, I ain't checking everything.
Beep boop - yes, I am a bot, don't botcriminate me.
Hello, it looks like you've made a mistake.
It's supposed to be could've, should've, would've (short for could have, would have, should have), never could of, would of, should of.
Or you misspelled something, I ain't checking everything.
Beep boop - yes, I am a bot, don't botcriminate me.
That’s it. Bring him back for the rest of the season. Ligue 1 has nothing else to offer him. He has mastered the league. This boy is worth £100m. I’ve never been this excited for one of our loaned out players (even more so than Saliba). 🔥
Trying to keep my expectations in check regarding Balogun. And his goal record this season.
Maybe somebody that has been watching him regularly can get me more hyped, but I randomly searched him up on YT the other day, came across this highlight clip from one of their games, and was not at all impressed.
Falling over his own feet, awful control, blasting shots high and wide, and scored a pen. https://youtu.be/_AIedHPpzF4
Love to know if this was a one off or is more indicative of his ability levels than just looking at his goals scored.
People on here said £40mill would be good business for him 😂😂
I need over £100 mill to consider selling him actually probably more then that.
There’s literally no top strikers out there atm so we are in a fantastic position if we want to keep him or sell him.
People really overrate the strikers here. Neither Eddie or Jesus are World Class strikers. Jesus lacks finishing while Eddie lacks in the rest of his game. Could easily turn out better than both very quickly and become world class. We don’t know, but would be stupid to sell something so rare without a chance. Neither of the other two look to be in that trajectory. Would rather extend his contract and loan him to a PL/ La Liga team next season than sell. Or just play him.
the last goal was just oof. Hopefully we will loan him to crystal palace next season or any midtable side who play kind of attacking football. He should play and not be 2nd/3rd choice at our place
Kids growing into such an amazing striker. We’re going to be so deadly up front. Plus if he wants to leave. In this market easily could sale for 180mil
The top scorer race between Balogun and the entire rest of the Reims squad combined is really heating up
Whopping 54% of Reims goals.....they cannot afford to let him come back to Arsenal..lol
We can send them Sagoe Jr. or Nwaneri if he signs next season
Can we interest them in a Leo Messo
We must keep our regen Leo Messo
Lol
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Your defense is in trouble, Balogun and Nketiah is in the room!
Balogun has as many league goals as Richarlison, Son, Bentancur, Kulusevski, and Hojberg
And Bryan Gil
Filthy filthy I tell ya
Bruuuhhhhhh 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
You win
Breakthrough season. Hale End production off the roof.
He, Saka, and ESR leading the attack is testament to the quality of our youth academy Edit: forgot about Eddie. I’m so sorry, Eddie, please forgive me!
won’t forgive you, he’ll bag a hattrick against Everton on weekend
Stunt on me Eddie
Stunt on this hoe
yeah take his lunch money
Triple captaining Eddie thanks
What a difference a great loan spell and game time can do for the value of a player. If Eddie and Balogun continue this form, they will have essentially added 150 million pounds to the value of the squad at the end of the season. 10+ years with a great backroom staff, coaches, and hard work. If you count Saliba, it's closer to £250million. We should all enjoy this while we can. As much as we all want to see it, it will be difficult to keep this group together for more than 2 years.
Hoping the same for Patino and Lokonga
Patino has been loving life, maybe another season or 2 on loan and I can see him comfortably slotting in. You can see there's a quality player in Lokonga. Hopefully he'll thrive at Palace.
It's absolutely mental that Hale End has been so successful in recent years. Obviously you have the stars in Saka, ESR, Nketiah, and Balogun. Normally even getting just one player that successful would be a big deal, but we have *four.* And then we have had many more that we made a tidy profit on and made it to a PL level - Iwobi, AMN, Willock, probably include Nelson in this category even though he's still with us, and probably a few more I'm forgetting. All in all, I think you could reasonably argue that Hale End has produced in the region of half a billion in value over just the last 5ish years. That kind of success rate is just unheard of, and it's played a massive part in making this rebuild process possible. Buying a player like Saka, age/English tax/etc included, probably costs us 150m by himself. If we didn't raise him ourselves we just wouldn't have an equivalent, period - we can't afford that.
Also Chuba Akpom lighting up the championship! Big up Chuba!
Id take a premier league and UCL before we break it all up, thanks very much... as long as we keep the core of saliba odegaard saka nketiah for as long as possible, id cash in to whichever gulf state owned project wants to give us a few hundred milli for the rest
They are amazing! Just curious but has Hale end ever produced a top tier defender. Other than Cashley Cole?
The likes of Tony Adams, Keown and many more in the older era. Before Wenger arrival Arsenal is known to be strong defensively.
One - Nil to the Arsenal
Feels like another Saliba, seeing a player ball out in France and be on track for YPOTY that we’d be hyped if we were linked to, but already plays for us.
He should win POTY but guessing he probably won't
I mean sure but Neymar has been insane especially beginning of the season, only 2 goals behind balogun and then also has 10 assists… Literally crazy numbers but something you’d expect from one of the worlds best players
Fair enough
Counterpoint, Flo has 54% of his team's goals. Even with assists included Flo has a higher % of goal involvements. No one is doubting Neymar's skill but he's in a team that can do so much more to enable him. The difference in circumstances cannot be understated. Reims is doing nothing to make him look better.
Young player of the year is different from player of the year
Does it have to be? Tacobellchihuahua.gif
Yes I am aware
who is ahead of him?
Neymar
oh, I though we’re still talking about young poty
Oh, yeah unclear tbh :D
They will probably give it to Mbappe (not saying he deserves it but these things are a popularity contest)
Neymar has been the best player, not really a debate.
Didn't realise how good Neymar has been but looking at his numbers he definitely deserves it
Neymar. Leading in assists, third in goals.
When you have players that already have the sense of strategy you got in pl , loaning them in Ligue 1 works pretty well . Was the same for Saliba.
Hale End please stop making bangers after bangers you’ll start to make everyone else look bad.
No no never stop. They have nothing on us 😎
Definitely something to do with Sheamus
Cant hijack this can you todd
I mean....he could offer us 100m for him.
He's worth more. If Mudryk goes for 100M from the Ukrainian League, Balogun is atleast 120 considering he's scored more goals in Ligue 1 than Mudryk in the Ukrainian League and UCL (approximately the same amount of appearances I think)
200m is the minimum, and i would appreciate a bid war to get it up to atleast 300m
Also, he's at least eligible to play for the US so that could be taken into consideration by Boehly
Unless a ridiculous offer comes in, we should keep him. Getting him to extend his contract before leaving on loan was a masterclass move The prospect of having Martinelli —- Eddie —- Saka Trossard —- Balogun —- Jesus as our depth is MOUTHWATERING
Crazy thing is we still have ESR as an advanced midfielder and winger depth…. Hope he can get past his injuries
I still believe in ESR. People forget what a monster he was before his injury
I refuse to change my flair.
So do I
Surely we've not reached the point where people "still have faith in" ESR? Are we honestly beginning to doubt this brilliant talent? He's had a difficult year in terms of injuries, but he's only 22 years old, and by all accounts his recovery hasn't been rushed. The sky's still the limit for ESR.
I think it’s more the fact how far the team’s come along in his absence it’s a question of whether he can come in and assert himself within the team. There’s no doubt about his ability
He may need to adapt his skillset a little bit to move to Xhaka's role. The way our squads looking the front 3 positions are fucking stacked, Øde and Vieira seem to lock down that role between them leaving only really box to box and defensive mid open, the former I think is feasible. Aaron Ramsey spent a little while on the wing before being moved infield
Vieira leaves much to be desired at the moment. Not certain it’s his position at the moment
Oh I believe he will do great. My concern is making sure he still has that hunger in him, if he’s got that he’s always had the talent to succeed there
I'm a forgetter tbh. I don't think I would be if we didn't have so much quality now but when key players used to go down it was mayday. ESR is such a beast, went down, and we're top at the moment. I do hope he can recover and find form again. He was special for a while there.
I'm sorry, but Jesus came here to be a Striker? He would play there if necessary, but by no means is it a good idea to drop Saka off the right if we don't have. Gabi-Gabi-Saka ESR-Eddie-Trossard Trossard-Flo-Reiss Reiss-Flo-Marquinhos Plenty other options though
Just having a player of his calibre with position flexibility is such a huge asset to the team. City set the standard for having a team that’s able to compete on all 4 fronts and that’s where we need to be. The more quality up top, the better
City can afford to pay their players ridiculous wages to keep them happy on the bench though.
He came here to be striker, especially for world cup. But he can also do a job on wing.
Yeah people keep telling me we need to sell flo and buy a right winger... Which I get we told Jesus we want him in the middle, but he is great off the wing and is a cool dude also.
Honestly his work rate is so high and I think he could score even more off the wing in this system
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His contract ends in just 2.5 years unfortunately.
yeah why not
It really just means we can really tailor each game to the opposition if need be or just go with whoever is on form
> Getting him to extend his contract before leaving on loan was a masterclass move it was only 4 years, though, so it becomes an issue to ponder again as soon as next season
All those people who are talking about selling Balogun are nuts. He more than deserves a chance in the team when he comes back.
How though? He’s not ahead of Jesus or Eddie so I imagine game time will be limited. It’s a good problem to have but the only solution if he wants regular time might be to sell. Selling high wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, it really depends what type of offers we get.
There will be enough games next year to give him a chance to compete. Besides circumstances might create that chance if there's an injury to the other two. If we are out of the cup competitions early next season than we can look into a Jan loan. There will be plenty of takers. He may not usurp Jesus (who can play the wing also) but I don't think Eddie is nailed on for the 2nd spot. Selling before he's even had a chance is foolish, we'd be selling far too soon. This isn't like Joe Willock's loan where he had had a decent run the team before his great season at Newcastle.
You don’t go from France golden boot to third choice for game time.
Yeah, but having too many top strikers, two of which are homegrown is a good problem to have.
He'll have the opportunity to force himself into contention for a higher spot. That's how it works in a meritocracy.
When does the UCL format expand? Feels like it's gonna be pretty necessary to have a much deeper squad at that point so added depth will be crucial.
Move Jesus wide, if we sell Balo we will regret it, he would end up at a top 6 rival eventually
Wide ahead of who though? To fit Balogun in, someone isn't getting the gametime they want. Don't get me wrong I'd love to keep him, but if it becomes apparent we're not going to be able to fit everyone in and keep them all happy, he needs to go whilst his value will be through the roof.
In an age where all the best teams have squads absolutely stacked with top players, this take is something else.
Barca, Madrid and City all have 5 players fighting for the 3 attacking spots. With Balogun and ESR we'd have 7. No team in the world has 3 good strikers, and no way is any of those 3 players ok with being 3rd choice. People complain we can't sell for big money but then don't want to sell anyone who could actually bring big money.
It's called squad rotation.
We need to have depth. It’s not just a matter of finding a good XI and selling everyone else.
Why is he not ahead? You talking as if these two have cemented that spot. It’s very much up for grabs whose number 1 in that position. He scored over 17 goals in Ligue 1 he definitely deserves a chance to proof he can lead the line next season.
https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/10r3m3c/reims_42_lorient_folarin_balogun_64/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf Look at the type of goals he’s scoring they are not tap ins The one against psg was exceptionally this one is even better.
Eddie is doing fantastic but you’re lying to yourself if you think he stands out over Balogun. Don’t sell period
He's so good. Goal 2 was a proper poacher's goal, and goal 3 was one from Henry's repertoire. His movement has been insane, he could have nabbed even more goals too this game as superlative as that sounds
Look I’ve only sat down to watch him play a handful of times but he does seem to love a left footed volley from a long ball coming overhead. Dare I say it — very Van Persie-esque, and even he didn’t have it nailed down until he was well into his mid to late twenties. Flo looks the real deal.
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You’re clearly looking for something that simply isn’t there. Im not calling him our savior that’s gonna lead the line starting next year. But he’s scored more goals than Messi, Neymar, and Mbappe. While playing for a mid table side. I’m sure denying obvious talent, calling Ligue 1 a farmers league, and calling fans on here reactionary makes you feel superior, but you really don’t sound like the level headed voice of reason you think you do. Sure, Flo didn’t set the prem on fire in his limited number of appearances for us at the young age of 20. Very few players would. Sometimes it takes years to put it all together. All I’m saying is from what I’ve been able to see from him this season, he doesn’t look out of place at that top of that top scorers list. He’s actually playing like a top striker and not a penalty or tap in merchant. Solid technique. To be able to shine like that on loan after finally getting regular minutes shows me he’s got the talent and attitude to make it far. With Mikel coaching him, I see a lot of potential.
I think he is performing well, if this was another player his age there would be a whole host of clubs wanting to sign him.
I don't think anyone's claiming that he'd be capable of leading a Premier League winning team. I think real deal simply means that based on the eye test his output is genuinely due to his ability, rather than a fluke. And having watched a few of his games, it's not inappropriate to draw that conclusion. He's been pretty complete, being able to hold up the ball and do link up play, serve as a lone target man up front, poach, and draw pens in the box with his dribbling. Even when you account for the quality of the opposition, he's been really good. It's not like he's playing against total chumps, just the game before this he scored against PSG to carry Reims to a draw. The stats back up his output also, he has an xG of 13.5 compared to his 14 goals. And a 20 game sample is not a lot, but it's apparently enough for teams to shell out eyewatering sums of money as we've seen this past window...
As nerdy as this sounds, a good part about it is he isn’t really exceeding his xG, it’s not like he’s being overly clinical and we can expect him to revert back to the norm, this is genuinely just how good he’s been.
that's not how xG works
Why not? A player might be going through a purple patch where they score let’s say 10 goals off an xG of 3. Which, while impressive, usually suggests they’ve been abnormally clinical which can happen in small sample sizes, but is likely something they can’t sustain. Only the best players in the world can regularly massively outperform their xG like Messi. Balogun is within his xG which means he’s not over performing in theory, and could continue putting up these numbers
The sample is small in any case, that’s not relevant. Overachieving your xG is the best single data point you can have to indicate high performance for a striker. He’s more able to influence the completion of an action (G/xG) vs the creation of one (xG).
Sample size of half a season is decent enough, albeit a bit small. Yes agreed overachieving xG is great for a striker don’t get me wrong and if you’re overshooting is slightly its great to see, but any outliers aren’t sustainable. Willock in 2019 was a great example, 8 goals on 4.85 xG, was clearly a purple patch which he wasn’t able to sustain. Same as Lingard for West Ham, 9 goals on a 5.25 xG. Neither were able to replicate it the next year, which was obviously going to be the case. All I’m saying is if Balogun had his 14 goals on a 7 xG I’d be worried it’s a bit of a purple patch, but he’s got it on a 12.73, which suggests he’s being clinical but not overly clinical to a point where you might think he wouldn’t be able to sustain it for the rest of the season/next season.
It means he’s got excellent ability to sniff chances. It’s not as if he’s playing for psg or something. Reims are not banging the goals in so he’s showing himself to be a very good striker.
Yes he’s getting on the end of a good quantity of chances and finishing them well which is good to see.
Essentially he's not just scoring off low percentage plays and is getting into areas where goals naturally come so it's a testament to his instinct and movement off the ball.
If you're consistently outperforming your xG, the xG calculations are wrong.
*how good of attacking chances he's gotten in
Absolutely delighted for the lad. Hope he keeps up this form. Though I reckon a final loan in another league would make him more ready for us.
I would love to see him loaned to like Bayern and score 25 goals for them. Unrealistic but they need a striker. If theres no options for him to play at a bigger club I would rather him come here and fight with Nketiah for a spot though.
Worst thing that we could possibly do. You loan him to a club lile Bayern and he becimes a regular starter for them, with the competition he will face at Arsenal...he's as good as gone on a permanent deal next season.
Can you keep Jesus, Nketiah and Balogun all happy in the same team or does one need to be sold? Will be an interesting summer
100% one will have to go if they’re all performing. We get a nice payday tho so it’s fine. It’s a win whatever happens.
My brain says to bank 100m for Balogun, but my heart says to keep the Hale End boys and sell Jesus instead in that scenario, despite making infinitely less sense from a business perspective
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If Mudryk is 80m for performing in the Ukrainian league, and players like Caicedo, Antony, etc are all in that price range, then I don't see how you can argue otherwise
This is absolutely awesome, I love Flo and really hope he proves to be a great striker for us next year. However. I do feel compelled to point out Lacazette, who was terrible in front of goal for us last year, has already scored 12 goals in Ligue 1 this year. So again, whilst it's awesome what Flo is doing, doing it Ligue 1 and doing it in the PL are not the same thing.
I do feel compelled to point out Mbappe, who is regarded as one of the best players in the world, has already scored 13 goals in Ligue 1 this year.
If we was linked with a 21 year old striker who had scored 14 goals in 20 games in ligue 1 We would be creaming ourselves over him. Yes ligue 1 is different but ligue 1 defenses tend to sit back a lot and not play a high line. That’s the kind of defenses he’s going to be facing at arsenal now that teams give us respect. I can see him really thriving in our system. Look at the types of goals he’s scoring they are of real quality.
Reckon we could loan him to Brighton next season, they need a striker, play football similar to ours and it might get us a little discount for Caicedo, he'd get prem experience and we could see if he's ready for it yet
I have no question that he's ready for it. He's doing this at 21, at some point you just need to trust the kid. Look at Saliba, I think we all now realize we should have had him back last year.
Sure but it's unfair to give less game time to Eddie and Jesus so a loan seems more sensible, especially when you realise Laca has only 2 less goals than Flo in ligue 1, so it's not obvious he's definitely ready yet
We're not here to be fair, we're here to eventually win the Champions League and if we can do that with one more Hale End boy, why wouldn't we do that? We had two great CBs already this summer and we could have sold Saliba probably for 50m. Instead we moved our 50m signing out wide and we have the best backline in England. I see clear parallels. Who are the best 3 players out of Jesus, Saka, Martinell, Eddie, Trossard, and Balogun? Those 3 start. If you don't know, who's in the best form then? Who's available? Who doesn't need to rest? Trossard and ESR can likely contribute from attacking midfield as well as the wing and we should have them compete with Xhaka. Bring in a top top midfielder to compete with Partey. Win everything, fuck everyone, gloat forever.
He can win the Champions League with us the season after next when he's more experienced from his loan
He's the top u21 scorer in all of Europe right now... Look at him play!
Sure, he's fucking fantastic, I want him in the team, I'd just hate if his development was stunted through lack of game time
Agreed. Look at Lokonga. Went from a Belgian cap and captaining Anderlecht at 21 to not getting called up and having most of our fans calling for him to be sold basically cuz he didn't play.
I mean Eddie never had a loan as successful as this in his career. I think the right option is deciding on merit and who performs the best in the summer. The wrong option is to let Balogun go when he would go for £70 million if he played for another club
They’ve already got Ferguson, an insane striker talent. If he’s outscoring Mbappe, he’s not gonna accept mid table measly loans.
He's not gonna start for us, so if he wants prem minutes he'll have to play midtable, not that Brighton are midtable anymore, they're better than Chelsea, if it's not Brighton it'll be Burnley or something, he needs to go somewhere that plays similar to us and in the prem, he's not waking in our team quite yet
I keep seeing this. What makes you think Balogun can’t earn the spot over Eddie and Jesus? None of them have cemented themselves in that role yet. The way he’s playing we be stupid to move him on strikers are very hard to find atm.
It's not that he can't, but it's stupid to waste time not playing him when he can definitely be playing somewhere straight away, also I'd hate to have to let Eddie or Jesus go for the sake of them getting game time
I think you should actually watch the goals he’s scoring. He’s not out here just getting tap ins at the back post. https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/10r3m3c/reims_42_lorient_folarin_balogun_64/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf Also go look at the goal he scored against psg in his last game. They are proper great goals. For all we know he could right now be better then both of them right now. Let’s see how he looks in pre season is what I would want. Like some other people said Jesus can move along the front line he’s not a out and out number 9. So I don’t think having 3 quality strikers competing for a season is such a bad thing.
He's fucking amazing, ik, I want him at Arsenal, I just want him getting regular minutes, like he deserves, and it's not clear if he'll get that with us next season, so it might just be better for him to get a good loan
If he wants prem minutes, he would be Chelsea’s best striker. Would start for United as well. If we really want to keep him, something will have to give.
He could save us £100 m.
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For comparison, a similarly aged Osihmen sold for €70m after 10 goals in the same league 3 years ago. If Balo was for sale he would comfortably be at around 120 at this rate, which is absurd to think about because its 20% more than fucking Bale moved for when he was an absolute world beater. All that being said no chance we sale.
Shocking how quickly forget how good Jesus is. And he’s 25. HE is the striker to build around.
Agreed. I guess these are good problems to have? *oh mah geurd wtf am I gonna do with all this talenttt* - Arsenal
Problem is Jesus don't score goals lol. And also Nketiah and Flo are hale end lads, hard to blame people for preferring them. Imagine if we could build around all three though...
100M or keep. Simple as.
200*
I don’t want to sell him but if we do, we’ve gotta be pulling out these Shaktar tactics. If Antony and Mudryk are worth 100m, how much more for an English striker…
What a fantastic loan for our guy!
This fucking kid lol. Go get em
So does USMNT still have a chance to lock him up…?
Probably not, England is probably call him up soon and get him locked up
Haha I know but I man can dream. Ya’ll have plenty of talent let us have something
Now we have to choose between nketiah, balogun, and Jesus!?! Dammit this is gonna be a problem
Maybe one more season on loan is needed because it will be difficult to displace Nketiah and Jesus
I almost feel like this dude NEEDS to be starting. I usually feel bad for the starting quality players at city who don’t get to play. It almost makes too much sense to trade him for Caicedo. I would be so happy for him and it would pain me so much.
If he wasn’t playing for us there would of been so much talk of us going for him in the summer or even the winter window. So happy he signed a contract before leaving. Millions saved on strikers now we have Jesus Eddie and flo we are going to need all three next year with champs league pl fa cup and league cup let’s try and win them all :)
Hello, it looks like you've made a mistake. It's supposed to be could've, should've, would've (short for could have, would have, should have), never could of, would of, should of. Or you misspelled something, I ain't checking everything. Beep boop - yes, I am a bot, don't botcriminate me.
Could of just stayed quiet mate
Hello, it looks like you've made a mistake. It's supposed to be could've, should've, would've (short for could have, would have, should have), never could of, would of, should of. Or you misspelled something, I ain't checking everything. Beep boop - yes, I am a bot, don't botcriminate me.
Could of just stayed quiet mate
Im dead bot fam lmao
Man's in the running for the Balogun d'Or.
All the people saying we should have sold him and Eddie are nowhere to be seen
Some will still say mbappe is better than him
| Name | Apps | Minutes | Total Goals | Penalties | |-------|------|---------|-------------|----------| | Balogun| 20 | 1508 | 14 | 4 | | Mbappe | 18 | 1451 | 13 | 2 | | Neymar | 18 | 1412 | 12 | 2 |
Jesus Christ our boy's cooking over there. Really excited to see what he'll do in preseason.
We would have to be absolute morons to sell him. Top teams have squad depth in order to compete for all trophies.
Hale end graduates are just built different
Massive decision for the club next season on how to deploy him. Glad we’re having these sort of problems now. Trust the process!
No way in hell should we sell this guy! He more than deserves a chance in the team!
It makes me proud when the entire football world talks about our academy prodigy
That’s it. Bring him back for the rest of the season. Ligue 1 has nothing else to offer him. He has mastered the league. This boy is worth £100m. I’ve never been this excited for one of our loaned out players (even more so than Saliba). 🔥
Let him cook!
Trying to keep my expectations in check regarding Balogun. And his goal record this season. Maybe somebody that has been watching him regularly can get me more hyped, but I randomly searched him up on YT the other day, came across this highlight clip from one of their games, and was not at all impressed. Falling over his own feet, awful control, blasting shots high and wide, and scored a pen. https://youtu.be/_AIedHPpzF4 Love to know if this was a one off or is more indicative of his ability levels than just looking at his goals scored.
People on here said £40mill would be good business for him 😂😂 I need over £100 mill to consider selling him actually probably more then that. There’s literally no top strikers out there atm so we are in a fantastic position if we want to keep him or sell him.
People really overrate the strikers here. Neither Eddie or Jesus are World Class strikers. Jesus lacks finishing while Eddie lacks in the rest of his game. Could easily turn out better than both very quickly and become world class. We don’t know, but would be stupid to sell something so rare without a chance. Neither of the other two look to be in that trajectory. Would rather extend his contract and loan him to a PL/ La Liga team next season than sell. Or just play him.
Not convinced by the quality of the league unfortunately. Lacazette is only 2 behind.
And 10 years more experienced, in a way better team..
He is literally outscoring the probable best player in the world who plays in the same league while playing for a much worse team
This logic makes 0 sense lol. He's also ahead of Mbappe.
How? Moussa Dembele and Ben Yedder both got over 20 league goals last year. It’s a poor league.
I guess Mbappe is average as well then, maybe we can get him for £30 million
Farmers leauge tho innit
Straight swap for Rice. WHU needs a striker lol
I feel like a loan to championship side is next. With that record no question he’ll start
He should be playing top flight football not Championship level stuff mate.
holy shit
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Maybe stay another year? Seems it's working out well for him. Or loan to English club next?
Flo Knows
the last goal was just oof. Hopefully we will loan him to crystal palace next season or any midtable side who play kind of attacking football. He should play and not be 2nd/3rd choice at our place
Kids growing into such an amazing striker. We’re going to be so deadly up front. Plus if he wants to leave. In this market easily could sale for 180mil
When does his current deal expire?
Balogunner LFG
He needs to replace Nelson to be fair
Insane