£35m star let go by Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta now named as ‘one of the best’ by manager

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The USA national team boss Gregg Berhalter has sung the praises of former Arsenal striker Folarin Balogun.

Arsenal let Folarin Balogun go in the recent summer transfer window with the player joining French outfit Monaco in a deal worth £35 million.

The 22-year-old forward has been in fine form since his Arsenal exit was confirmed. In five Ligue 1 outings he has racked up three goals and provided one assist.

He sparkled once more during the international break, finding the back of the net in a friendly against Ghana with a well-executed turn and finish in the box.

After that match, USA manager Gregg Berhalter gave his verdict on Balogun. As quoted by Goal, he said, “he’s one of the best players I’ve ever coached at running behind the backline and you need guys picking up on his runs and you need guys brave enough to play the ball.”

“Today, you saw that so I think that was a step forward for the team in terms of getting Balo on the ball. You saw he was able to score and he could have had a couple of more.”

Arteta on the other side of difficult decision

Balogun is not yet the finished article, but he has vast potential. The question remains as to whether Mikel Arteta made the right call in the summer by allowing Balogun to go. One pundit certainly believes that a mistake was made.

The reason that there was no room for the New York-born striker in the Arsenal squad was that Arteta opted to keep his faith in Eddie Nketiah. The 24-year-old has since rewarded that show of belief with some eye-catching displays of his own.

Nketiah started the season particularly well, scoring twice over the course of the first three Premier League games of the campaign. The Hale End academy graduate did enough to catch Gareth Southgate’s eye and recently made his senior England debut.

Nketiah has also already proven that he can make an impact at Premier League level, which Balogun is yet to demonstrate.

It is hard to say with any degree of certainty that Arteta was wrong to move Balogun on, but the fact that the doubt remains is disconcerting.

All that matters now, though, is that Nketiah is the man the Gunners stuck by and he now needs to keep delivering.