Arsenal have been tipped to make a ‘huge statement’ to their fanbase by convincing Bukayo Saka to sign a new contract in North London.
Saka is one of English football’s brightest young talents and has been arguably the Gunners’ best and most consistent player during Mikel Arteta’s two-and-a-half year reign.
However, the England international only has two years to run on his existing deal at the Emirates Stadium.
And with Arsenal missing out on Champions League football last season, well that didn’t do their chances of keeping Saka much good at all.
The 20-year-old enhanced his reputation again on Saturday with two goals in a 6-0 demolition of Sevilla – their last pre-season friendly before the 2022-23 campaign officially begins on Friday.
Earlier in July, The Sun reported that Arsenal were in talks about keeping Saka on a long-term basis, giving him £125,000 per week.
And journalist Pete O’Rourke has told Give Me Sport that it would be a massive message to the fanbase.
He said: “It’ll be a huge statement of intent to the fans and to everybody connected with the team that Arsenal are going places and they want to keep hold of their best players, because that’s been a criticism in the past that they’ve lost and sold some of their best players to their rivals, so keeping Saka would be a huge statement that Arsenal do plan on keeping hold of their top players.”
Saka probably won’t commit his future to the club until he knows for certain that they’re going places under Arteta.
Scoring 10 goals in two friendly games against Chelsea and Sevilla isn’t concrete evidence that Arsenal are destined to qualify for the Champions League come May.
And ultimately that – and only that – will be considered progress by Saka, finishing in the top four.
For that reason, it’s very possible that the player doesn’t make a firm decision on his future until well into the 2022-23 campaign.
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