Your Arsenal transfer round-up on Thursday, August 3.
Mikel Arteta may be forced into changing Arsenal’s Folarin Balogun transfer stance after Gabriel Jesus suffered a fresh knee issue. The Gunners had made the 22-year-old available on the market following his breakout season at Reims in Ligue 1 with numerous clubs showing an interest.
Inter Milan quickly became the frontrunners for his signature but then began focusing on other targets after learning of the £50million asking price. Interest is also prominent from AC Milan with Premier League clubs monitoring his current situation.
Ahead of the AS Monaco Emirates Cup clash, Arsenal confirmed Jesus’ knee problem was going to be assessed which has thrown his availability for the coming weeks hugely up into the air. Eddie Nketiah could be set for another run in the starting XI, but Balogun is also right there if Arteta wants to use and therefore keep him.
Balogun is also dealing with a slight niggle, but keeping him at the club certainly looks set to become a possibility depending on the severity of Jesus’ injury. However, at the moment, Arteta is not expecting the stance to change. He said: “The plan with Flo doesn’t change at all, but unfortunately, with Gabby, we not going to have him. We have other options to play with different qualities of players, so we will adapt.”
