Exit interviews: Albert Sambi Lokonga

What should Arsenal do with the Belgian midfielder?

Exit Interviews is a series where Scott and Adam share their opinions on next steps for select Arsenal players. The series will run through early June.

Albert Sambi Lokonga will return from a loan to Crystal Palace at the end of June. He started just two Premier League games at Arsenal before going on loan in January, as well as all six Europa League group stage games.

Sambi was a fixture in Patrick Vieira’s lineups, making five starts in February and March, but has largely been dropped from contention by caretaker manager Roy Hodgson.

So, with Sambi soon to return, what should Arsenal do?

Adam: Sambi is kind of an unfortunate story, one of the few of the Arteta Arsenal era. But there’s really little reason at all to drag this story out.

There were times this preseason when Sambi looked like he might be about to make a leap as an 8, threading brilliant through-balls to onrushing attackers during the American tour, even scoring one goal. But then the season came Sambi was again stuck in the 6 role due to injuries to Partey and Elneny.

The good news is that £17m up front on Sambi’s salary is eminently movable, although there’s very little chance this deal results in a net profit. Players don’t increase in value simply by joining a bigger club, and the market for Sambi will be made up mostly of lower-table sides in the big leagues and leading clubs in the smaller leagues, neither of whom is made of money.

It’s not a surprise that Sambi is already being linked to promoted Burnley, who employ his former Anderlecht boss, Vincent Kompany. That would be a great fit for Sambi, who needs a lower-pressure atmosphere and consistent playing time to thrive.

Adam’s verdict: Sell for £10-12 million all-in, or a loan with obligation to buy if his new club avoids relegation.

Scott: Sambi is a good example of where even good process in transfers doesn’t guarantee success.

It is also a good example that at Arsenal’s level developing young players is still very hard and that trying to do what some of the clubs (like Brighton) below Arsenal have done isn’t exactly feasible.

A player on the fringes at Arsenal will get a few sporadic shots with the first team and maybe if they are lucky they might get 2-3 games in a row to try and prove that they can make an impact.

In his 18 months with Arsenal Sambi got some chances and while he never looked bad and flashed some talent, he also had glaring weaknesses that he needed to work on.

At a team that was first fighting for a top four birth and then in a title challenge, it is just not practical that a player would be given those chances and to be able to make and learn from those mistakes, to improve. I think perhaps the expectations on what he is as a player also hurt him. He came in as the young Thomas Partey apprentice but his main deficiency was that the did not have the space awareness at this age to be able to cover in a single pivot. He was also a victim of Granit Xhaka’s rebirth as a very good attacking focus central midfielder, leaving him with few pathways to first-team action.

As Adam so succinctly put it, it’s getting harder to make it at Arsenal for young players.

Arsenal took a shot on a talented young player and it didn’t work out, thankfully this is not a massive investment in transfer fee or wages and the club should basically be able to come out close to even on it. He arrived for in the neighborhood of 17m and after amortization has a book value of around 10m, that is where I expect Arsenal to look at targets for him this year but would be open to another Premier League loan with option/obligation.

Scott’s Verdict: Sell, 10m this summer. Loan with 8m obligation next summer