As the story goes, Arsenal completed a £17m deal for Albert Sambi Lokonga during the 2021 summer transfer window after he was recommended as the 'new Yaya Toure' to Mikel Arteta.
These were former Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany's exact words when speaking to Rio Ferdinand's YouTube channel ‘FIVE’ after seeing the midfielder up close at Anderlecht during his time as manager of the Belgian outfit: "The first thing I did when I saw Sambi is I went to Mikel and also Pep, but Mikel first and said, "You got to watch this guy, he’s the new Yaya Toure. Anyway, nothing comes of it, he’s got a cruciate ligament [injury].
"Then I fall into the management job at Anderlecht, so I’m working with him. I had the same conversation with Mikel and I believe the same thing now. I'm not sure I'm doing him a favour saying this stuff, but look, you know what I like about Sambi, what Yaya did have, is, he wants the ball no matter what."
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In fairness to Kompany, he was right about not doing Lokonga any favours with such lofty comparisons to Yaya Toure, who is widely regarded as one of the best midfielders of his generation.
Of course, the 23-year-old still has plenty of time to carve out his own reputation, but it would appear that some Arsenal supporters are beginning to lose patience following a below-par performance in the 3-0 FA Cup third-round win over Oxford United on Monday night.
As Arteta opted to ring the changes, especially in the middle of the park, it allowed Lokonga - who earlier in the season filled in for Thomas Partey as a number six - to push higher up as one of the two midfield '8's with Granit Xhaka named amongst the substitutes and it's safe to say the reaction to his performance hasn't been positive.
Now, football.london were in attendance at the Kassam Stadium and felt that it was a worrying performance from Lokonga as he 'ultimately failed to get into the game' and it was 'unsurprising to see him brought off just 15 minutes into the second half' against the League One side.
Meanwhile, the verdict from some Gunners supporters on Twitter is that with the January transfer window open for another three weeks, Arteta and sporting director Edu should be looking to move the midfielder on as well as focusing on completing a deal for Mykhaylo Mudryk.
@mr_olubaba said: "A sensible transfer for arsenal in this window would be swapping Lokonga for Tielemans", @PhillyDesigns said: "We should be trying to get a loan swap for Tielemans and Lokonga", @Speczino suggested: "I say we swap Sambi Lokonga for either Moises Caicedo or Declan Rice" and @SamadOpel said: "Swap Lokonga for Tielemans. Leicester might be tempted."
With that said, a popular shout has been for Lokonga to join back up with Kompany. @SwedishRoss proposed: "There are definitely worse loan options for Sambi Lokonga than a Kompany reunion at Burnley. He desperately needs to get away from Arsenal and earn minutes" to which @GGooner001 agreed: "The best move would be to loan Lokonga back to Kompany while he’s at Burnley."
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