Arsenal have confirmed that Santi Cazorla and Aaron Ramsey have signed new deals at the Emirates while 17-year-old midfielder Gedion Zelalem has penned his first professional contract.
The trio of deals comes hot on the heels of extensions for both Per Mertesacker and Tomas Rosicky and further consolidates the stability of the Gunners first team squad.
Speaking about the successful negotiations, Arsene Wenger told Arsenal.com:
“We are very pleased that Santi Cazorla, Aaron Ramsey and Gedion Zelalem have committed their futures to the Club. Cazorla and Ramsey are absolutely key players for us, and this news is a boost to the whole club.
“Gedion is very young of course, but he has shown already that he has fantastic promise, and we all look forward to his development with us.”
Having committed his long-term future to the club as recently as last year, Aaron Ramsey looks set for a bumper pay increase following an impressive upturn in form.
“I’m delighted to have signed a new contract,” the Welshman reflected. “I’ve been here for six years and I’m so happy. I think we’ve shown so far this season what we’re all about and the direction that this club wants to go in. I want to be a part of that, and to be a part of something special at Arsenal. We have a great team which we believe can achieve great things.”
Santi Cazorla added on his own deal: “I’m so happy to have signed a new contract with Arsenal. This club makes me very happy – the manager, my team-mates, the fantastic supporters, the stadium and the whole organisation here.
“I have had a great time with the Club since joining nearly two years ago, and I think that we can be a big player in competing for the top trophies in years to come and that’s important for me. I have already had lots of good moments here and hopefully there will be many more to come.”
Fanastic news ! Need Kos the boss to sign as a new one as well.
And Bac!
Kosciellny signed a contract extension at the start of the season
Koscielny signed at the start of last season wasn’t it, in 2012? I’d prefer to have him on a 100 year deal just to be safe.
Actually Koscielny and Mertesacker should have got a joint contract so they’ll never be apart (sorry my love for them is strong at the moment)
If AW listened to English pundits & the British media, we would have ended with one or more of Phil Jones, Smalling or Cahill (paying over the odds especially for the last one)! AW is not bettered by any manager in spoting & nurturing a talent. Ofcourse he has had his Jeffers & Cygans like every manager. However there isn’t any other manager in the game now, who has produced so many superstars like AW has. Even Fergi only 1 batch of stars, when he had to compete against sugar daddy teams, he did the same as them – £30… Read more »
Jones, Smalling and Cahill are all quality. It’s hard to say how the future may have turned out – too many variables – but when they were all available any or all three of those players would have improved the arsenal squad at the time.
Cahill is turning into an immense defender. Wish he played for us – he is a good hybrid between Mert and Kos
Great news!
Taken us a bit of time, but dare I say ‘we’re learning from past mistakes’ .. and actually sorting out new contracts for our top players before they get into the final year of their current deals.
This new ‘crazy idea’ of renewing contracts before they expire could work..
Maybe.
Great news! In the recent past we’ve been on the end of transfer speculation regarding our key players leaving. It’s great to see the club demonstrate some real stability. Onwards and upwards goners!
Goners? No the point is they’re now staying…..
Splendid.
Love these players, love this team. Such a pleasure to see how much they appreciate the club and enjoy being here, and such a joy/relief to see so many extensions being signed. UTA!
Equity restored in the case of santi and ramsey, i hope, following the arrival of ozil
come on, just give Sagna whatever he wants.
A lifetime supply of interleaving layers of pasta with layers of sauce, made with ragù, bechamel, and Parmigiano-Reggiano?
Done.
Not bad.
That’s it. I’m headed for lunch.
A pleasant read
I’m just glad we can continue to see Santi’s smile–absolutely brilliant news. Sign up Bacary as well, Arsene!
“Santi’s smile” that sounds like a great song
We’ve fucking changed man. I remember the recent past where all of our players were fucking off as we impotently stood by watching. Now we’re on that shit hard. We should give credit here because we were all bitching when we let Nascunt and Vancuntycunterycuntlycunnycuncuncunt and Flim Flam fuck off.
trueer words were never spoken. well put
@ Oor Wulllie – unless its a dead baby panda or something
Really? Zelalem has been at the club for 8 years and still hasn’t bagged over 100 starts.
Ok, I smiled at it this time.
I think you may have misspelled Zelalem.
That, or you’ve misspelled everything else.
Finally, in the upcoming years we won’t see our top players leaving the clubs year in year out!
All I want is that we should win the FA cup so that it increases our self believe and also atmosphere in Emirates will also change which would be major boost..
Hope we get a better striker in summer then I guess we can compete with the likes of other big clubs..
#COYG
News rating: 10/10
Ca-Ra-Ze-ly good news!
All we need is Sagna to agree and we can focus on our needs up top. Kos would be nice too.
Wow this is BFG (Big Fucking Good) news!!!
This news has made me so fucking moist. I’m slipping off my seat here.
Let’s just kill John Terry now.
I’ll bring the body bag
feed him to the pigs i say
‘Ah!’ said the Pigg(ies): That’s not fair!
When it comes to john terry almost everything is not fair!
He’ll grap a direct red in 3rd minute, anyway
..
Nice! Key players staying instead of the old “signing for City/United/Barca to win stuff” bullshit.
Woohoo some player stability at last. Well done Arsene and the board.
I enjoy this much more than new signings. All along this campaign ive realised that most of our losses could have been changed by players that already belong to us. Our solutions are internal, Wenger is absolutely correct when he says its difficult to strengthen a team like ours. Only the very best players can improve it
Great news hopefully the club has changed its attitude towards new contacts and the sagna one will be the last we see of players running down their contracts. ….also very excited about seeing zelalem in the future he looks a top prospect
pandas are overrated compared to Sagna
Good news, everyone!
Clear that at least some harsh lessons have been learned at the club. Having said that, we’ll probably be losing Bac and Verm in the summer unless we do something drastic. Still, the amount of players we have reaching the last stages of their contract are blessedly few nowadays.
Looking forward to seeing more from Rambo, he can really be a star alongside Jack. If Gideon keeps rising too, he could be unbelievably good in a few years.
Hopefully Bendtner gets his new contract soon too…..for someone else wmco!!
I’d happily chop the little finger off my non dominant hand in exchange for all 3 points at Stamford Bridge this Saturday.
Rosicky to score another screamer in the 2nd minute, Cazorla to slide home a Podolski cross at the half hour mark, and Zelalem to get a runaround after 60 minutes when we’re already 4-0 up!
You’re too restrained. John Terry to be sent off in the ninth minute for spitting at Szczesny, right after Szczesny completes his hat trick.
And after Poldi belts a screamer that deflects off his face into the roof of the net.
or Podolski hits it full force while Terry is on the line, catches him in the gonads and all of the above cross the line, the ref gives us two goals, while Maureen runs on with an ice pack and in the proceed gets arrested for indecent assault while trying to heal the fatally wounded Terry who passes away in extreme agony very very very slowly…………..oh and we win. well you never know, stranger things have happened.
Like I said I’m working on the curse so maureen and john terry’s next shits are hedgehogs and it should happen right at kick off …..I want to hear the screams straight after the ref’s whistle blows.
Brilliant! Now…
BA-CA-RY! BA-CA-RY!! BA-CA-RY!!!
As delighted as I am, I really wish they would priorities Sagna, no player who’s a free agent this summer is more important.
It frustrates me that we won’t give the country’s most consistent right back what he wants!!
I’m sure he has been offered the best terms an Arsenal defender has ever received (90,000 so I hear) its just unfortunate that PSG can offer a lot more with a nice signing bonus.
In other news, Tim Shamewood is the only Gunner who is a cunt….. *Grabs coat*
John Terry is a cunt!
Definitely making a statement to the rest of the league that times have changed. Locking down a talent pool like this with players just into and still yet to reach their prime already accomplishing so much. Good times ahead!
Come on Bac, Sign da thing!
BA-CA-RY
SIGN-DA-TING!
BA-CA-RY
SIGN-DA-TING!
Repeat ad infinitum.
Arsene tosses the pen to Santi ,he catches it with his right hand and signs his Christian name on the contract before flicking the pen across to his left hand to complete his signature.
Wenger smiles.
Wenger knows….
And Carzorla wizzled pass John Terry with ease who had an erection and stood still in amazement and admiration at the exquisite through ball to rosicky, who slide a perfect pass on a plate to Giroud with the goal gapinng at his mercy….!!! And Yess! Yesss!! yessssss!!! Girooooouuuudd! What a brilliant goal! It’s an unbelievable team goal to cap a wonderful display at the Bridge by Arsenal, so much to the delight of Wenger who’s still celebrating!!! And Mourinho has had an erection too while staring at Ivanovic’s Ass from the stands! Arsenal has completely outplayed, outmuscled and outclassed Chelsea… Read more »
LOL, you said “gaping at his mercy”… Grabs coat and leaves…
Delighted with this news.
Just a shame contracts ain’t worth the paper they’re written on.
A rumored £6m signing on fee for Sagna sounds like a lot but considering what other lesser players are being paid throughout the world and that Sagna has been a role model and consistent servant for almost 7 years, I think we should give him what he wants, I think he has only been given one pay rise in his time. He definitely has another two years left in him as a first choice right back and will be a great mentor for Bellerin and Jenkinson. Then he can switch to center back and prolong his career and retire with… Read more »
£6m to sign our own player, I don’t think so.
He still has 2/3 years at the top level. To replace him will cost upwards of 20 million; which I know we will have to do one day.
But, unless Wenger has someone lined up of his calibre, I say keep him. Keep the back 4 together for as long as possible. Maybe buy in a Monreal type player to gradually phase him in.
That said I do not have 6 million squid and if I did I’d probably put it on Arsenal winning the FA Cup, so what do I know!
that is cashed up citeh and chel$ki talk right there. The Arsenal have more money than before, but it’s still limited and needs to be spent wisely. That much cash for 1-2 more good years vs a little bit more for a player that would hopefully be around for 6-8 years.
There’s something special about Zelalem. Hopefully he’ll be able to feature in the cup fixtures over the next few seasons and put on a bit of size. The boy already has magic in his feet.
I know £6m is a bit unreasonable. I think we can and should pay him £3-4m though.
He’s on £60,000 a week which you have to admit is woeful for a player of his quality in this day and age. He would easily get £120,000 a week at some other clubs.
We did this with Cesc a few years ago by making him our highest paid player plus giving him an extra few million to make up for the relatively low wages on his previous contract.
So the £20m he has earned while playing for us isn’t enough to pay for his lavish lifestyle.
Now we have to give him £6m & 90,000 a week to make up for the slave wages we have been paying him for the last 6 years.
If Sagna leaves (likely), then Debucchy or Coleman are good candidates.
What he is asking looks unlikely to be bridged.
With vermaelen And Fabianski also possible departures (plus the striker issue), it would have been stabilizing to keep Sagna. Maybe if we win the title, there could be an opportunity for a closer compromise.
Good to see Zelalem commit.
Santi is a great influence on the team with his positive attitude. Ramsey will only get better.
It’ll be a good day when an Arseblog News comments section doesn’t have Santori bigging up Debuchy or Coleman as potential replacements for Bac. Give it up already man, it’s tiresome.
Having said that, totally agree with the rest of what you’ve said.
If Sagna is on 70k per week don’t you think we could get him to sign for 2 years at 90k? If that is remotely possible than doesn’t that seem more prudent than letting him walk and then buying a new right back? It is about a million pounds per year difference in wages. Keeping him for two more years allows us to see if Jenkinson and Bellerin are good enough.
Another idea is to bring back Coquelin and let him play right back with Jenks getting more starts.