Arsenal's Joseph Olowu joins Cork City on loan

Cork City have announced the signing of defender Joseph Olowu on a loan deal Arsenal.

The 21-year-old joins Neale Fenn’s side having made 11 appearances for the Gunners’ U23 team in Premier League 2 this season.

Speaking after arriving on Leeside, Olowu said: “It was an exciting opportunity when I first heard it, and thought that it’d be good for me to further my footballing career.

Neale explained to me the kind of football he wants to play - he wants to get it on the ground, play exciting football to get the fans on side, so that sounded good to me, to be honest.

“On a personal note, I want to get a lot of game time in, and play as much football as possible and on a team basis, I want to help this team get into good position and keep pushing on for the season.”

Looking ahead to Friday’s opener against Shelbourne, Olowu is ready to get stuck in: “I always love a game against a big rival. I’m looking forward to the challenges, to get the fans onside, and hopefully have a great atmosphere for the opening game of the season.”

Olowu will be with City until June and manager Neale Fenn is delighted to have gotten the deal done ahead of the season opener.

“It’s taken a while to get it over the line; we have just been awaiting international clearance for the last few days, so we are very pleased to have now received that," he said.

"We are very grateful to Arsenal for their help in getting this deal done. Joseph has been training with us for a while, he’s a centre back, he reads the game really well and obviously from being at Arsenal, he’s very good on the ball which is something we like at this club.