Earlier this week, reports surfaced that Arsenal were looking to tie down Bukayo Saka to a new long-term deal.
Having made his debut last season, the 18-year-old has come on leaps and bounds in the last 12 months catching the eye as both a winger and at left-back
He’s believed to be under contract for another 18 months at Arsenal but with other clubs sniffing around, it sounds as though we’re going to offer him a significant pay rise to continue his development under Mikel Arteta.
Ahead of Sunday’s game with Newcastle, the boss was asked if this was indeed the case.
He said: “I am really happy with how they [young players] are developing.
“Part of that developing is to improve the contract and to tie them to the club. But that has to follow a natural process.
“We have Edu, we have Raul, Vinai and Huss who are in charge of that and I am sure we will do the right thing when players deserve to improve and extend their contracts.”
Amazingly, despite making 23 appearances this season, Saka is yet to be officially promoted to the first team.
According to the Telegraph, because the England under-19 international is still on his first professional contract he’d be available to leave the club for training compensation if he doesn’t agree new terms by the summer of 2021.
It was confirmed yesterday that the youngster will be available for selection this weekend after recovering from a hip injury picked up before the winter break during the 0-0 draw with Burnley.
You could already make a good case for getting rid of Raul, but if he fails to get Saka to sign a new contract, he shouldn’t just be fired, he should be fired directly into the sun.
Sunnylehi
I’d really appreciate a detailed explanation. Apart from the delayed firing of Emery,I don’t see what Raul has gotten so very egregiously wrong. Pearl-clutching regarding his “book of contacts” seems, frankly, disingenuous to me.
Bungling the firing alone is grounds enough to fire him. He got it so wrong, that we went from a club with realistic ambitions of a top 4 finish to a team not even likely to make Europa.
Surely we’ll get him to sign da ting. No club could be that incompetent as to lose a player like Saka on training compensation fees!
I know this is Arsenal and we have a history of ballsing things up but if I remember, in recent times, we’ve had the Nelson contract extended just before his German loan. I’m confident we’d get this done as well
sign him up!
I really like him to be versatiel enough to hog our left wing as well as our left back position. Depending on how well tierny copes with injury, it’s reassuring to have saka cos he gets us excited.
in other news no club would be crazy enough to fail to agree terms on a new contract for Arron Ramsey… oh
The problem with the Ramsey case was not in letting him go. He hasn’t exactly set the Italian League on fire. Rather it is letting him go for free. Just unimaginable incompetence. With Saka, however, the aim must be to hang on to him.
not getting a fee for Rambo was criminal. Not signing him for a lot of money was smart. Juve already looking to offload him. I’d take him back with no transfer fee and Juve pays half the salary 🙂
Letting him go for a fee or on a free was a problem. You can’t tell me his, work rate, creativity, passing, passion wouldn’t be a massive improvement on the current, if he had never been allowed to leave.He wanted to stay and when you look at some of the players we renegotiated with over/instead/more successfully than with (delete where appropriate) him….
It’s too simplistic to say Ramsey “set the Italian League on fire”, Juve have been a mess this season. It also implies Ramsey wouldn’t improve us which is nonsense. It doesn’t matter what he does for Juve really, he was good for us and that’s what counts!
Please Arsenal, don’t f*ck this up.
I could be way out, but I’d rate Saka at about 20-25 million right now in the current market. Although I wouldn’t sell him for that myself.
It could save us a big headache in a year or so from now if we offer him 40k or so a week in a five year deal. I heard Martinelli is on 10k. I’d be looking to offer him a salary bump and extended contract too.
Oh, and I’d put massive buy-out clauses on their contracts too.
Or of course, we let their contracts wind down as we usually do…
I just like the way arteta named each individual like that. If they fail its clearly on them. Very smart man
The board won’t change their spots, expect us to have offloaded some big earners before we offer a contract!