Southend of England have managed to retain the services of Nigerian-born attacker, Simeon Akinola, but they will be without his compatriot, James Olayinka, who has returned to his parent club, Arsenal, megasportsarena.com reports.
While Olayinka is angling for a breakthrough with Arsenal in the English Premier League next season, Akinola is content to keep growing with Southend, who have also officially announced their signing of Terrell Egbiri.
Egbiri will now look up to guidance from Olayinka, who is one of the nine players under contract with Southend until at least the end of the 2021/22 campaign, but The Seasiders have confirmed that Olayinka has returned to Arsenal.
Olayinka initially arrived Southend on loan in October 2020, in a deal that was scheduled to run until January 2021 but the loan was extended until the end of this season, however, after failing to stay up in the English League Two this season, The Seasiders have been forced to let him go.
He departs Southend with a statistics card of 21 games in all competitions and was in action for 1,524 minutes, with three goals to his name, but his chances were few and far between in the second half of the season due to an ankle injury he suffered in January.
