Simon Jones reports for the Mail+ Transfer Confidential newsletter that Arsenal will look to sell Albert Sambi Lokonga this summer.
As per reports from elsewhere, Jones claims Burnley are indeed interested in signing the midfielder. Manager Vincent Kompany rates Lokonga highly from their time together at Anderlecht.
But Burnley aren’t the only club in the race. Jones writes that Sevilla are also weighing up an offer for Lokonga in the upcoming window.
Arsenal signed Lokonga from Anderlecht for around £15m plus add-ons in 2021, and he made a relatively bright start to life with the club.
But after largely dropping out of Mikel Arteta’s team in the second half of 2021/22, and failing to see much of a change in the first half of the current campaign, Lokonga went out on loan to Crystal Palace.
Once again, Lokonga has had a mixed time out on loan, initially playing a regular role in the Palace side before dropping back to the bench in the last couple of months.
In all, the Belgian international has made nine appearances for Palace since his move on January 31st.
It seems unlikely Lokonga gets a permanent move to Palace, and to be fair to him, his chances at the club weren’t helped by the departure of the manager who brought him in – Patrick Vieira.
Instead, Lokonga will now seemingly be hoping to revive his career by linking back up with Kompany or moving to La Liga.
Arsenal are pushing for midfield signings in the upcoming window, with plenty of high-profile players linked with a move.
So despite reports of potential departures for the likes of Granit Xhaka, the pathway to minutes under Arteta seems to be congested.
Perhaps Arsenal might consider another loan to the right club, but cashing in and investing the funds on a new signing might make more sense at this point.
