David Luiz could leave Arsenal on a free at the end of the season after the club confirmed that the Brazil international penned a one-year contract last August.
The Gunners do have the option to retain the Brazil international for an additional 12-months but Sky Sports report that we’ve not attempted to have that conversation with the 33-year-old.
Asked by Arseblog News if that might change in the near future, a club spokesman refused to be drawn on the matter.
Even with Laurent Koscielny and Nacho Monreal leaving, Arsenal’s decision to sign David Luiz from Chelsea raised eyebrows at the time. At £8 million it wasn’t a huge expense for an experienced Premier League winner but his reputation proceeded him.
In truth, while a very popular player in the camp, he’s been every bit as erratic on the pitch as many predicted. It’s worth caveating that in the first half of the season, Emery’s Gunners were, to a man, awful in defence and that things have improved a great deal under Mike Arteta, who apparently likes him a lot.
Luiz’s upturn in form makes a possible premature departure something of a surprise, however, with the club expected to make heavy financial losses in the coming year due to the coronavirus pandemic (and a lack of Champions League football), we could well be looking to trim the wage bill wherever possible.
Luiz recently said that he’d love to finish his career with Benfica, with whom he won the Portuguese title in 2009/10.
“I always said that I would like to end my career at Benfica,” he told Brazilian television network SporTV.
“I love Benfica. My dream is to step on the pitch of Estadio da Luz in their colours.”
Presumably, we’re happy extending Luiz’s current deal to the end of this campaign. Premier League clubs have until 23 June to offer temporary extensions to players in the final year of their contracts through until whenever the 2019/20 season is completed.
Keep him for the lolz
Another money wasting masterpiece by Raul.
Not at all. He’s a great leader and showing his true form under Arteta.
Don’t think the criticism is of Luiz per se. He’s been good under Arteta, but was absolutely awful under Emery (I realise he’s not alone there). It’s more about the financial outlay.
Totally unfair, Koscielny’s behaviour was beyond contempt and was a vestige of the culture Wenger had let fester the previous decade, the club were put in a very difficult position.
Are we likely to sign Mari ,?
wouldn’t have thought so will money pinching. I would be happy to sign him. As Sokrates wants to leave. For champions League football , at a Schalke or such a team in Europe.
If all our defence on last year of contract iswilk they go all in and risk a injury ? As their contract runs down.
Hopefully Holding picks back up to before Rashford left that dirty tackle on him.
Who know’s if we’re going to sign Mari, we might even be obliged to purchase him. Whatever happens we have too many centre halves, at least 2 have to go for me.
In a summer when we lost Ramsey and Welbeck for free, we’ve potentially paid the guts of £20m to have Luiz for one season.
Fee £8m + VERY high agent fee + wages.
Another Raul masterpiece all right.
Totally agree, irrespective of the player, if true this would represent horrific business that is a real concern given the same decsion makers are still calling the shots. How on earth could this be considered “outsmarting the market”??!
Some of this hyperventilating about Raul is baffling. Last summer everyone on the planet said we were broke. Yet Raul managed to oversee the signings of top-drawer talent like Saliba and Pepe that none of us expected. As for David Luiz, he wasn’t part of the plan until Koscielny insisted on going home to Bordeaux. Luiz was signed late in the summer to replace Lolo’s experience and leadership (he was also much fitter than poor Lolo). The major plus was he was willing to sign a short-term deal that wouldn’t block the path of our young CB’s, and especially Saliba.… Read more »
I cannot understand how Pepe’s deal is serving your argument. If we WERE bad financially, straining our cash positions even further and putting that big burden on our financial books for the years to come is notthe smartest thing to do. If we WERE NOT broke and we had the money all the way, then Raul didn’t do anything extraordinary, just spent the reserves… I don’t want to blame him for the financial situation — his job is not to find money. His job is to spend them wisely — and here is the big question mark that me (and… Read more »
If by “straining our cash positions even further” you mean he invested in potentially world-class young players like Pepe, Saliba and Martinelli, then yes it does serve my argument.
Anyway, back to David Luiz. His replacement (if we sign a replacement) will be an 18-23 year old prospect with good resale value whose contract helps us lower our mid to long-term wage bill.
We already have the youngest squad profile in the entire league, but the fan-slash-accountants ignore that because it doesn’t fit their negative narrative.
Pepe was very exciting deal.
Had read if him for months going to Barca or psg. Then for us to splash the cash. Remember Pires and Bergkamp they had hiy and miss first seasons too. Pepe still is exciting promising and only getting better than
We should have sold Ramsey the prior year but supposedly Welbeck refused to go when we tried to sell him and when you allow players to enter the last year of their contract there’s not a lot we can do. Ramsey has spent a lot of this year injured and is repeatedly mentioned as a candidate to be sold to make way for new signings at Juventus so it’s not clear the decision to move him on was the wrong one. Not getting a fee for him was the issue.
Agree I would have sold Ramsey earlier if we couldn’t extend him but would add a couple caveats. Ramsey has 3 goals and 1 assist in 15 games for Juve in Serie A which is pretty good for a first, injury plagued season. For contrast, no Arsenal midfielder has scored more than 1 this season. Secondly, Juve frankly have too many CMs and I don’t think a single one hasn’t been linked with a move away, so I don’t think you can read too much into Ramsey speculation. Thirdly, and most importantly, it actually doesn’t really matter what Ramsey is… Read more »
My main issue with Ramsey is how many muscular injuries he gets and how that’s only likely to increase with age. I don’t mind moving on from him but the lack of 40-50m we could have gotten for him is the issue
We could extend Ramsey. We have put a deal on the table, which, according to sources, he was going to accept. As this deal has been proposed by the club, I cannot imagine how it would have been unacceptable for the club.
So my conclusion is that the decision to pull out of the negotiations has nothing to do with the terms of the contract.
I should start keeping track somewhere of “Raul’s Masterpieces”. Ramsey, Nacho sold for 0.25m, Soares, this…
Again complete nonsense.
Ramsey and Welbeck’s contract situations were botched by Wenger and Gazidis and left for Raul to pick up. When coupled with the contract those 2 negotiated with Ozil, the cost of keeping them was too high, especially given those two’s injury records.
Also the Luiz deal hasn’t cost £20m has it? You have to factor in what transfer fee we got for Koscielny and his wages
At least he was our bastard for a short while.
6 months ago I wouldn’t have been too fussed but now.. I’m not sure that’s true…
We were becoming more defensively stable and no doubt I was hoping his leadership skills and experience of playing on the big stages in world football would have helped our younger players before big games, and embedding the mindset that Europa league is not good enough
The stability is due to the defensive structure by the coaches not the personnel. Now imagine what they can do with better defenders. I will sell Musti (90k), Sokratis (100k) and Luiz (150k), keep Holding, Chambers, Saliba and sign a defender. Wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the plan.
Mari..?
If you don’t want to keep him then take the option and sell for a small fee. Otherwise, he just walks for nothing…
It’s tricky, we paid 8m in what had slowly become and inflated market. With clubs now struggling for money, I can only assume the transfer market will stagnate and normalise. He is a year older now and with 12 months extension, he will still be out of contract in 12 months so can’t see his value being more than 5m, extending would mean we have to be sure of a sale otherwise we tie ourselves in for 12 months of his salary. Let’s say he is on around 150k a week, that is 7.8m a year Now let’s say out… Read more »
Can we really afford to let Luiz go when we have Sokratis and Mustafi we also want to potentially sell? Holding only just coming back from an injury, Chambers still injured. Saliba might need time to settle… It seems risky, even if he is on big money.
I agree, to be fair to him he has performed like a leader under Arteta. He is the only person in the team who has won everything, and if we are to start winning, we need his winning mentality to drive us during this transition under Arteta. I see too many negative wankers commenting here.
It’s a good question but equally good is can we afford to NOT let him go? We might not be able to shift Mustafi (last year of his contract) or Sokratis. That leaves us with way too many CBs for our wage bill.
My thoughts exactly. There are just too many unknowns right now with regard to the transfer market, and if players like Mustafi don’t fetch any interest, I don’t see how Luiz could realistically be brought back under the current circumstances. So I imagine Raul and everyone else involved are playing the waiting game themselves right now.
There’s lots of talk about letting him go, but am I crazy in thinking that’s he’s our best defender? If not him I’d like to hear a reasonable suggestion as to who is.
If the option is there and he’s not on Ozil money he has to stay another year. He is a first team, starting eleven player.
As mentioned by others, we should agree a new deal just to ship him off for a nominal fee. Even getting £2mill back is better than a free transfer and that small amount can be the difference from signing someone that will improve us, to Igor Stepanovs
The cost of agreeing a deal is more than how much we will get. You pay agent fee and small signing on fee. You also pay him over £100k, multiply that by 52 for the year, add the figures together, then you will understand why the club isn’t renewing.
I cannot see any player agreeing to an extension, to then get sold straight after. It makes no sense as he would get a better contract as a free signing.
It says we have option, which suggest it might be clause we need to trigger…
But I agree that he wouldn’t voluntarily discuss and agree a new contract only to be sold.
He doesn’t have to agree to an extension, under his current contract Arsenal have the option of choosing to extend him for one more year or choosing to let him go for free.
The problem is if you sign him for an extra year at 150k/wk you end up in a situation where no other club will dish out a fee for a 30+ year old player with 12 months (or less) left on his contract. The clubs that could afford it already have better players and the clubs that would be improved by having Luiz are priced out, particularly in the face of the financial difficulties football is experiencing at the moment.
it would basically create another Mustafi/Sokratis situation where you can’t offload the player. If the club decide to take the option on Luiz is had to be with the intent of making him an important member of the squad (ie starting eleven) otherwise it seems way too risky and too likely to backfire financially.
Think Luiz is there to open the game up with the long pass, but there isn’t a Henry up front.
Something has to give, we have Too many centre half’s, and receiving any type of fees for Sokratis or Mustafi with only 1 year remaining, will be unlikely.
Clubs will be haemorrhaging money, and looking to cut costs wherever they can.
Luiz is erratic, but he’s still had a brilliant career, keeping him to mentor Saliba for a year would be my preference, but numerically something has to give, we’ve got 7 centre half’s on our books, the likelihood of no European football, and no ticket revenue, which probably spells the end for Luiz.
Get rid of him. Has always been useless and will always be useless. The only good thing he’s given us is his comedy tears when Germany trounced Brazil
You should probably take your blinkers off. Luiz is one of our players on the team sheet every week. We need Luiz and Mustafa. We don’t need Chambers, Holding and the Greek lad, who is better than Chambers and Holding.
We need Mustafi like The Beatles needed Yoko Ono…
Disagree. He’s had an outstanding career won more than anyone in our team.
Paolo Maldini would have looked shit under Emery. Paired with Mustafa and with Xhaka as your DM? No chance.
He makes too many mistakes, at the same time he is a leader and an excellent long passer.
He’s overpaid and at his age probably needs to go, but he’s not useless.
Like many, I thought he was on a two year deal and I was quite happy to see him stay after his recent improvement under Mikel Arteta, but the situation is a lot different to what we had 12 months ago when he signed for us and it could well get a lot worse so I think that letting him leave, whilst regrettable, is understandable.
I don’t know what wages he’s on (I can’t imagine it’s >£100k/week), but still not sure it’s cost effective to let a starting XI player go for free. He wouldn’t necessarily need to be replaced, provided the Mari deal is made permanent.
But even still this makes a Mustafi sale less likely, which certainly would be cost effective, and also weakens us a little short term
He is on £150k. I believe Musti (90k) will be sold. We are currently 8th in the league, don’t understand the fuss about letting Luiz go. Bearing in mind he was at fault for Olympiacos goal. Not worth the hassle tbh
Bearing in mind Arteta might not consider him as first chioice for next season.
Another player on the books next season who has his hearth and mind off Arsenal. Great, just fking great. Why play him anymore? He is bang average, no wonder Chelsea were OK to let him join us. We need to sign and play players who are fking committed to Arsenal, not fking benfica, real, or fk fc. What the fk are we building here? Selling our top players, buying bang average players who are shit or always injured, or young talent with the worst injury historie. Wtf is going on?
Genuinely can’t believe there’s people in this thread actually bemoaning this decision. Shows how far our standards have fallen because this guy has at least TWO massive errors waiting to pounce every time he steps out on that pitch. Absolute joke of a centre-back and I’d rather rely on the youth we’ve got than continue to pay astronomical wages to someone who operating at his level clearly doesn’t deserve it
Tell me a better player who can play from the back we have at the moment. I think Luiz is the most difficult replacement for us, if you understand how we play.
It’s definitely about getting anyone off the books they can. Arsenal was already losing money before the current mess, and there is nothing Stan dislikes more than losing money.
Trophys.
Penny pinching in order to afford a bit more to give to agent fees.
Worrying direction from Raul.
I want to see how Mikel handles what Raul find for him
More proof that things didnt go well under emery. Alienated existing players. Gave some away for free and bought people who havent done too well. I blame the ramsey and ozil mess squarely on emery.
God only knows what happened with koscielny and monreal. if it was just the board then emery should have brought up the issue when in charge.
What is it with this club and centre halves? A quarry sized hole that we’ve been trying to fill in using a tea spoon to transport the soil. My love for Arsenal will never die – but when it comes to transfers involving centre backs, they make my teeth itch. Those halcyon days of signing Tommy Caton (rest his soul), Martin Steve Bould, Andy Linighan, Martin Keown and – the sweetest of the lot – Sol Campbell are indeed a thing of the past. This, dear fellow Gooners, is our archilles heel, both on the pitch and off it. Until… Read more »