Arteta claims Balogun's agent is complicating contract negotiations

Liverpool, Sheffield United,

and

Brentford

are all reportedly interested in

Folarin Balogun

as the slow contract negotiation is raising the possibility of Arsenal losing the forward in the summer.

Arteta

admits he’s unsure of the English forward’s future but remains hopeful a deal can still be done.

“You need three parties to make a deal,” said the Arsenal boss. “For sure, the club wants to make a deal, the manager wants to make a deal, the player wants to stay and I’m not sure about the agent.”

When asked whether Balogun’s agent was stopping the talks progressing, the Spaniard added

: “I’m not saying he’s stopping, it’s that we need to find an agreement with him.

“We are negotiating with an agent, with a player that wants to stay at the club and we need to find an agreement.

“I’m telling you that we are doing everything we can to keep him here and hopefully from the other part they are doing the same and in the same interest, which is the player’s interest, which is to stay at the football club and be successful with us.”

Balogun has scored two goals in his five senior appearances for Arsenal and is expected to be involved in the Gunners’ Saturday FA cup match against Newcastle.

“He is fit and available. His progression and the use of the time he’s had with us has been incredibly good and he will keep having chances while he is with us.”

The

Arsenal’s

manager claims he has reminded his players about their responsibilities amid the rise of positive

coronavirus

cases in the

Premier League

, as the last two rounds of testing have generated

40 positive tests

.

“We have to be very aware of that and we have to be very strict,”

said

Arteta

.<em>

“Players, like any public person, have to be more aware than anybody else.

“There are a lot of people that don’t respect rules. They are out there, they don’t get noticed, they can get away with that.

“We are luckier than anybody else because we are still being around the players, we can still do our job and continue with our professions and we have to bear in mind that everything we do has other consequences and [how] other people act doesn’t.

“At the moment we cannot let anybody down. You know people are sacrificing their lives to help the society in this moment and what we have to do is contribute, contribute, contribute and don’t give anymore issues - neither to the public, neither to the government, to make a decision that we don’t want.”

Arteta

adde

d: “The doctor is very aware and all the time trying to push. We are getting educated now with new rules, new protocols. Around the place we have a lot of people and sometimes you can make a mistake. But there are certain things we cannot allow to happen as well.”