Arsenal look set to make several key sales this summer, and midfielder Albert Sambi Lokonga could be on the chopping block.
The Belgian arrived at Arsenal for around £15m in 2021, and despite some glimpses of talent, he never truly settled into the midfield.
Lokonga spent this season on loan at Luton Town, where he impressed despite suffering several injuries, but not enough to earn himself a future in North London, and the midfielder recently revealed that Arsenal have told him they expect him to leave.
Luton were relegated from the Premier League, but Lokonga does have admirers there, and goalkeeper James Shea, formerly of Arsenal, has now praised him.
Former Arsenal academy goalkeeper James Shea praises Albert Sambi Lokonga
James Shea came through the academy at Arsenal, but was released in 2013 under Arsene Wenger after failing to make a single first-team appearance.
He has since become a rotational goalkeeper at Luton, and he has now praised Lokonga, whom he played with this season.
“I thought Sambi was brilliant, I thought he was fantastic. After the Liverpool game when he went off, I thought he was a really really big miss for us,” he told Luton Today.
Albert Sambi Lokonga can thrive elsewhere in Premier League
Despite not making the grade at Arsenal, Lokonga showed enough at Luton to suggest that he could thrive if given a chance at a team elsewhere in the Premier League.
Lokonga at his best is a midfielder who is comfortable on the ball, and in a midfield next to an energetic runner, he will be able to showcase his true talent as a midfielder best deployed as a number eight.
In his time at Arsenal, he was often asked to step in to replace Thomas Partey at the base of midfield, and he simply does not have the intensity off the ball to cope in this role. Arsenal will now hope a team can see the potential of Lokonga, and choose to sign him this summer to help Mikel Arteta sign a new starting midfielder.
Lokonga and Partey look set to depart, and several players including Everton’s Amadou Onana have been linked.