Arsenal have told Folarin Balogun he can leave the club at the end of the season after both parties failed to agree terms on a new contract.
The highly rated striker has been a long standing star in the Gunners academy setup since signing his first professional contract back in 2017.
At just 18 years of age, Balogun has represented the U23 side this season and with an impressive 14 goal contributions in just 15 appearances, he’s already attracted interest from a host of clubs.
According to a report from the ever-reliable David Ornstein, Arsenal were attempting to get Balogun to sign a performance based deal, that would see the striker rewarded for a number of targets with a very generous set of financial incentives.
However, the team working for Balogun insisted that their main goal was to get the youngster as much playing time at senior level as possible, and it didn’t take long for negotiations to come to a halt.
With just 12 months left on his existing contract, Arsenal are now turning their attention to making sure they get as much money for their asset as possible, including a lucrative sell-on clause should Balogun move on further during his career.
Yet to pick up a single first-team appearance at Arsenal, it seems Balogun doesn’t want to wait around to follow in the footsteps of Bukayo Saka, Eddie Nketiah and Joe Willock, who have all featured heavily since Mikel Arteta took the reigns.
With Nketiah and Tyreece John-Jules arguably ahead of Balogun in the pecking order, its no surprise the youngster wants to move on for regular football in a senior side.
Brentford offered Arsenal £5million last season to take Balogun off their hands, but it would seem his impressive 2019/20 campaign will have added a bit more on to his price tag.