Ligue 1 club Reims are accelerating their pursuit of Folarin Balogun on loan, according to reports from France.

Last weekend, L’Equipe (via GFFN) reported that Reims were on the hunt for a replacement for Hugo Ekitike, and Folarin Balogun was one of the names on their shortlist.

L’Union now report that Reims’ recruitment team have accelerated the pace of their pursuit of a loan move for a central striker, with Folarin Balogun joining Aleksander Buksa as the Ligue 1 club seemingly narrow down their options.

Balogun has found opportunities hard to come by in pre-season.

The striker did score in Arsenal’s opening game, playing 45 minutes against Ipswich Town. But after another 22 minutes in the next game against FC Nurnberg, he hasn’t featured at all in the four games since then.

Overall, that’s 67 minutes across six fixtures, an average of just over 11 minutes per game. If that’s what it’s like in pre-season, he’s unlikely to play much more in the competitive matches.

The reality is that Arsenal now have two very good goalscorers in Gabriel Jesus and Eddie Nketiah. Jesus has four goals in his four games, whilst Nketiah brought his tally to five after his latest goal against Brentford.

Balogun’s best bet to play regular football this season is to go out on loan, and the chance to play in a top-five league in Ligue 1 would be an enticing one, without a doubt.

But it seems we’re still in the early stages of Reims’ interest in the striker, so we’ll see how things progress in the coming weeks.