Footie Central | Football Blog Blogging the football world
Arsenal have turned down an approach from French side Monaco to take midfielder Albert Sambi Lakonga on loan for the rest of the season.
The 23 year old was signed from Anderlecht in the summer of 2021, and initially showed promise, making 24 appearances in all competitions for the Gunners.
However, he has found it much harder in his second season at the club, and he was substituted in his last appearance for the club in the FA Cup tie with Oxford United.
Now he has found himself in the pecking order at the Emirates, and with Mikel Arteta still wanting to bring in another midfielder before deadline day.
However, despite that the club are not prepared to let him go just now, the rationale being that they want as big a squad as possible as they tackle the second half of the season.
Lakonga can expect more game time in the Europa League when that resumes.
Andy is an exiled English football fan living in Cyprus. He loves all sports but football is his abiding passion, and he still has dreams every now and then about scoring the winning goal in a Wembley Cup Final, even though his playing days are long gone. He follows most major leagues, across Europe at least, and has a favoured team in each. When he’s not watching, listening, reading or downloading podcasts about football, he spend his time worrying about his beloved Arsenal.