Martin Odegaard says he’s “very happy” at Arsenal but he wouldn’t be drawn on how close he is to signing a new deal at the club after being quizzed by reporters in Norway.
It’s no secret that Mikel Arteta wants to reward the midfielder with a contract that better reflects his importance to the club after he impressed two seasons running after signing on a permanent deal from Real Madrid for around £30 million.
The 24-year-old was elevated to club captain last summer and played a pivotal role in Arsenal’s title challenge last time out, scoring 15 goals and making 8 assists.
He was subsequently crowned the club’s Player of the Season and was nominated for the Premier League, PFA and PFA Players’ Player of the Year awards. Capping off a stellar 12 months, he also earned a place on the shortlist for the Ballon d’Or alongside teammate Bukayo Saka.
“I don’t have much to say [about a new contract], apart from the fact that I am very happy at Arsenal and I hope I can be there for a long time,” Odegaard told Nettavisen ahead of his country’s 2-0 win over Georgia.
“Beyond that, I have no comment right now. Now, it is the national team that is in focus.”
While our captain, who scored last night, may be playing it cool, from what we’ve heard, the deal is basically done and will likely be announced next week, if not sooner.
Odegaard’s current deal runs to 2025 and an extension is likely to run to 2027 with the option to extend for a further year.
Great, let’s hope he can maintain his level and retire with us.
Probably it’s the club directive that our captain not reveal any details about the new deal. Have a feeling they’re going to announce it with a grand gesture (or something).
Imagine we tie down our captain long-term. Very un-Arsenal of us!
Let’s hope it is true. Truly magical player with a phenomenal work-rate. One of the best players in the EPL and indeed world football; absolutely worthy of contention for Ballon d’Or!
While the money sloshing around the PL leaves me with a bitter taste, at least it means we no longer have to listen to constant rumours from Spain about them poaching our favourite players!
That shit used to give me anxiety every summer!
Time to be anxious about the Saudis
Na. I know there was some noise about Gabriel this summer but I can’t imagine any of our young, exciting assets kicking their toys out of the pram to go to play in an irrelevant dustbowl full of has beens. Regardless of how much money is on offer (there is plenty of it at Arsenal). We just have to make sure all of our assets are protected by securing them on contracts as early as possible (which we are doing), and then we are not obliged to sell to anyone.
I have a feeling (and hope) that it’s going to blow up in their faces.
Those guys are coming so strong with their cash that even players in their prime are going to Saudi Arabia. They may not be able to compete with the European Leagues in terms of quality, however, they are attracting quality players and it’s not going to be a flash in the pan like the Chinese League. These Saudis mean business, and the European Leagues better take notice.
The next player on their radar is Mo Salah, and who can say his head is not already turned.
And they can look forward to having a statue made from sand
as opposed to…. wet mud? not sure what that comment meant.. were you referring to the desert sand of the country? So PL clubs muscle every league in the world for their best players. Built EPL and followers because of the quality of performances of those players. Or perhaps you’ve forgotten how wet, dull and brutish British football was. But, how dare anyone else do the same.
Is it me or does it feel like his talent is such that it seems fitting to expect a peak Cesc-like 15 goals and 15 assists from him per season as a normality? He’s already there with the goals, I’m wondering if the relatively low number of assists for how good he is is to do with his teammates not finishing, him getting man marked or is it in a weird way just him being so unselfish and not demanding the ball as much and opting to be a decoy to make space for others? Or a combo of all… Read more »
Being the best player in the world is possible with the supporting cast that surrounds him.
Well can we have a 120 million release clause for him. Just in case we have to sell him, it’s better for buyers to know the release clause and pay it rather then to deal with edu and get 60m for him.
Make it 200 million and make Real Madrid cry salty tears.
120 feels low. Evan Ferguson will go for more I’m sure. Keep yer grubby paws off our captain!
120 million for one of the best creative, goal scoring players in the world, 24 and captain of Arsenal? In this market? Meaning if a club matches the release clause we have to sell? You could double that and it still wouldn’t be enough.
120,000,0001?
Just a reminder–if a club matches the release clause, we “have to sell” only if the player wants to go. And if the player wants to go, it *usually* makes sense to sell him, regardless of what the contract says.
£120mn seems abound right, IF IT WERE 2016. If players like Caicedo are going for £115mn, Ødegaard is worth at least £250mn
Downvoting only because of the ridiculously low 120. He’s easily worth 250, so sensible release clause would be…. 800M.
Just make it a round billion bruv
That seems low. Not to mention it really doesn’t mean much these days. Ansu Fati has a $1bn release clause at Barca and he is trying to revive his career at Brighton. I believe so did Dembele and he went for €50 mil.
LOVE
IT
GoTv😀
Irrelevant, but I just hope Arteta will give more minutes to Trossard as club football resumes. He was great in preseason and scored a fantastic goal for his country. He deserves more chances going forward based on the form
I’m sure we’ll see more of him (and maybe even ESR?) this month with the CL kicking off.
Don’t be stupid!!
Trossard didn’t cost 65 million quid, and we’re not paying him 200k a week.
So he can’t start
That first line!
He did start.
He started against Fulham and wasn’t that impressive. Maybe he is just better coming on as a sub? He seems to be a difference maker when we need something from the bench.
Look, he is our captain. Then it’s predictable that he is going to leave us soon.
Gat a grip. We have moved on from that.
*get
This is a non-story. Exactly the same thing happened with Saliba and Saka.
You cannot force players to stay, but he looks a lot happier than when he played for Madrid!
Is Odegaard now the first player since Fabregas to have reached the one year mark of having the captaincy without having either left (Van Persie, Auba, Laca), had the captaincy removed (Gallas, Xhaka), or become perma-injured (Vermaelen, Mertesacker, Arteta, Koscielny)?
14 months and counting. Let’s hope the curse has been lifted
Is there such thing as a metric for pre assists – how many times has he played the ball to someone else to get the assist? Mr Arseblog do you have a one of your wonderfully nerdy people who have this?
I don’t know if there is a statistic for this, but it is certainly something you see from Odegaard when you watch a game–how often the chance develops because of something he did just a bit earlier.
Captain Fantastic