Arsenal is expected to announce the contract renewal of Arthur Okonkwo soon as Football London claims they have convinced him to remain in London.
The 19-year-old is highly regarded at Arsenal and he is a player that they think could break into their senior squad in the near future.
Having found the path to the first team blocked at the Emirates, it appears as though he would leave Arsenal for a club where he can start playing first-team football.
But the report says he has been spoken to by the club and he is set to remain in their ranks.
His deal expired yesterday, officially, but the report says Arsenal expects him to put pen to paper on a new long-term contract to remain at the Emirates.
Okonkwo is one of several youngsters who have tested training with the Arsenal senior squad and he was on the bench in their Europa League round-of-16 second leg match against Olympiacos earlier in the year.
The report adds that Arteta considers him so good that he could become Arsenal’s third choice next season when they send Alex Runarsson out on loan.
Regardless of what happens with Okonkwo, the Gunners are expected to sign another goalkeeper this summer to act as a backup to Bernd Leno.
In an ideal world you would keep all your youngsters, but in reality it is not possible. We carrently have an awesome group and many of them are good enought for lower half premier League teams. I refer to Okonkwo, Saliba, Ballard, Willock, Nelson, Maitland-niles, balogun and nketiah. However, can we put our mortgage on them, like we would smith-Rowe, saka, Martinelli, Tierney, Gabriel and Pepe?
If we can assure all the aforementioned are on long term contracts we can protect their values, but is it fair to hamper their chances of gaining experience at the top level elsewhere.