Cork City are close to announcing the loan signing of Arsenal academy defender Joseph Olowu, according to reports.

AllNigeriaSoccer claim Cork City are on the brink of announcing the loan signing of Joseph Olowu. Cork and Arsenal have an agreement for the loan, so Olowu just needs to fly out, hold a medical and put pen to paper now.

This explains why Olowu wasn’t in Arsenal’s u23 squad to face Liverpool over the weekend. Arsenal didn’t want to risk an injury in an u23 game ahead of his opportunity to play senior football.

Unlike in the Premier League, the League of Ireland’s transfer window doesn’t close until 22nd February 2020 for domestic transfers or 2nd March 2020 for foreign transfers. As a result, Olowu is free to make his move.

Personally, I thought the defender started the season well. He looked good in each of his appearances in August, but struggled for consistent starts after that.

The 20-year-old didn’t play at all in September or October, before slowly working his way back in at the end of the year.

Olowu made a mix of appearances at centre-back and right-back this season. I prefer him at centre-back, but it was harder to get games there with Konstantinos Mavropanos, Harry Clarke, Mark McGuinness and Zech Medley competing with him.

A loan should give him a bit more regularity in his appearances, good luck to him if it goes through.