Originally Posted by
IBK
Bit of a different situation TBF. Balogun has shone on the few occasions that we have seen him, and Nketiah has been average, but if we look at history, plenty of youth players have looked like the real deal but not turned out that way, and there's no guarantee that Balogun would be another Martinelli in the first team. We only have to look at Reiss Nelson and Joe Willock to see promising players not quite peforming when given the opportunity. Nketiah has not been total shit and is integrated into the first team. Arteta seems to have found an effective blend of forward players at the moment, and there's a danger in trying to make too many first team changes.
I would like to see Balogun get more minutes, but realistically his opportunities were always going to be in the cup comps. He could have played a bit more, but if he decides to leave, I'm not sure that we should have banked the house on him in all the circumstances, or could realistically done a great deal more to convince him to stay.
I am no cheerleader for how we have been approaching contracts in recent years - and if nothing else, the past few weeks have shown us that it is the young players who should be our focus both in the short and longer term, but the Balogun situations falls more into the 'benefit of hindsight' category than the 'mess up' one.