Arsenal aren’t in talks to bring Folarin Balogun back to the club in January, and the striker is expected to complete the season with Reims.

Fabrizio Romano reports that there are no ongoing discussions between Arsenal and Stade de Reims for Folarin Balogun to be recalled in the January transfer window, despite speculations around the Gunners’ centre-forward position.

All parties currently expect that Balogun will complete his season-long loan spell in France.

There’s been some debate over whether or not the striker had a recall clause in his loan deal to begin with.

Tom Canton of Football.London reported that Balogun’s deal does have such a clause for the January window.

But back in September, reports suggested Balogun’s deal didn’t have a recall option, and he was expected to spend the full campaign in France.

With Gabriel Jesus picking up an injury, there was some speculation online about whether Arsenal could bring back one of their loanees to fill the gap in the squad.

Balogun was the obvious choice, considering his success on the goalscoring front. The striker has scored eight times in the first part of the campaign with Reims.

But it wouldn’t be optimal to bring the striker back for a few games and then let him sit on the bench for the rest of the season when he could have been playing weekly in France.

Unless Arsenal really believe Balogun can challenge with Jesus and Eddie Nketiah for starts in the second half of the campaign, it’s better for his development (and thus for the club in the long term) if he stays with Reims.