Arsenal summer signing Albert Sambi Lokonga has admitted he was ‘surprised’ by the level of detail the club had gone to in researching him ahead of his move there.
Lokonga joined Arsenal in a £15.75m deal from Anderlecht in the summer as the Gunners looked to reshape their squad with a host of new, younger players.
His career up to that point had been a limited one, with him having worked his way up Anderlecht’s various youth ranks before making it into the first team in 2018.
He’d been a regular for them since that point, with a series of impressive performances seeing him stand out in Belgium and subsequently earn attention from Arsenal.
Given he’s only 22 and had spent all of his career in Belgium until his move to Arsenal in the summer, it’s fair to say not many knew much about Lokonga before his arrival in London.
That’s natural given his age and the fact he’s a young player whose spent his career so far not playing in one of Europe’s more glamorous leagues.
However, it seems someone who had done their homework was Arsenal duo Mikel Arteta and Edu, who surprised the youngster with the detail the level of detail they had on the midfielder.
“This discussion made things easier and reassured me,” he told Sud Info.
“I was almost a little surprised that they knew me so well, even though now, with data, all the clubs have a lot of data on each player.
“During this discussion, the coach made it clear that he was counting on me.
“He told me that I would get playing time, which was important to me, and that it was up to me to perform on the pitch to get as much as possible.”
