Albert Sambi Lokonga’s transfer to Arsenal continues to progress at a snail’s pace, but reports suggest it should finally be done this week with his medical expected on Friday.
With Anderlecht kicking off their pre-season training camp in the Netherlands this week, one of the key updates was that Albert Sambi Lokonga didn’t join them.
Instead, he’s waiting for his deal to join Arsenal to get over the line, according to Kristof Terreur and Pieter-Jan Calcoen.
At the start of the week, HLN reported that the transfer was now just a matter of days away, and he agreed with the club that he would not to go on their tour.
Now, HLN report that Sambi Lokonga will sign for five years with the last of the details between the two clubs ‘smoothed out’.
After months of talks, Sambi Lokonga has a deal with Arsenal, and Arsenal are finally in agreement with Anderlecht. Hallelujah!
Earlier this week, Belgian journalist Sven Claes (via Chris Davison) reported that an official announcement was expected by the end of the week, although that might not come until the start of next week now given the pace this move continues to crawl at. That being said, Arsenal love a late Friday afternoon announcement.
It is also Claes who reports the medical will take place on Friday:
https://twitter.com/svenclaes/status/1413362561546735616
HLN add there are just a few dots and commas to be sorted but the player is not even considering that the move could collapse and is expecting to be with Arsenal for their Scottish tour.
Sambi Lokonga made 37 appearances for Anderlecht this season, as well as a few for the Belgium u21s. He was on the fringes of the Belgium Euro 2020 squad, but he narrowly missed out when Axel Witsel returned to fitness just in time.
As Belgium is currently an amber list country, Sambi Lokonga was expected to return a negative covid test before travelling to the UK and then to quarantine at the place he was staying for 10 days. This could be cut to five days by returning a second and third negative test, as we’ve seen with Nuno Tavares.