Kevin Campbell has praised Bukayo Saka for his incredible consistency since he broke into the Arsenal first team.
The attacker is one of the most important players at the Emirates, and the current team is being built around him.
The likes of Liverpool and Manchester City are circling, and they will look to add him to their squad at the first chance they get.
He signed a contract extension at the Emirates until 2024, and he has just over two years left on it.
There have been talk that he could leave to join a more successful club, but Arsenal is also in talks to tie him down to a new deal.
Campbell believes it is the right to do, and they are sending an important message to his suitors.
He tells Football Insider: “This young man has outplayed two contracts. He was player of the season two seasons ago and he was player of the season last year.
“You have to remember he is 20 years old. It is incredible consistency. Arsenal have not had too many top performers in that time but he has been the outstanding player even when they have played well.
“To secure him to a new contract sends out a message to everybody else. Liverpool and Man City are not stupid. They know what kind of player this guy is. Of course they want him in their side.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
It is hard to think about this Arsenal team without Saka, and he is an important part of our current rebuild.
The England international will impress at any club he joins, but we might never be able to replace him if we allow him to leave.
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Lil chilli all the way!!!
We have not seen the best of Saka yet because he will be more effective as a conventional left winger, or played off the central striker in a 3-5-2 set up.He does a good job as an inverted right winger, but his natural abilities would blossom even more on the left as he can cross a wicked ball ,on the run, with his natural peg .The obsession with playing inverted wingers is a tactic which is relatively easy to defend against as very few of the players involved are two footed, invariably having to turn back inside on their good foot into a congested area. Conventional wingers create space by direct running on the outside where there are more opportunities to engage covering CB s who do not like being pulled out of their comfort zones.Real Madrid won the Champions Cup with two orthodox wingers and it’s only a matter of time before the fad of inverted wingers becomes the exception rather than the norm.
Sign Da Ting Saka!
Even 200 a week is fine by me, his earned it by being our best player 2 seasons in a row. The cost of replacing him would be too high too. Pay up the young man before the Madrid’s and Bayern of this world start tapping up his agents.
That is a 170k a week increase. It’s too much IMHO. I believe 120-150k a week will do. You have to remember that he is only 20 years old and money at this point time should not be made his focus. If he continues on this trajectory 200k a week will be his lower bound wage in a couple of years.
If he wants to stay and believes in the project 150k a week will do. If not, then we must instead cash in on him now.
Arsenal can’t fall back into the trap of offering their players ridiculous wages again. It is simply bad management that has detrimental implications on a long-term basis.
*130K (not 170K)
He’s not as good as some on here make out , he is good but some go on like Arsenal will fall apart without him.
120K a week is plenty for his age and if he wants to go somewhere else then we will be better off , if he wants to stay then we will be better off also as not many players do well when there looking to head elsewhere.
He’s been our best player but don’t be fooling yourself , we haven’t been great the last 2 years and it hasn’t been hard to get player of the season as much as it had the years before.
I like Sake he’s very good but he’s still a long way to go for me and i think we would live without him if he’s had his head turned by the media hype.
Good player get better when he play with better players, we have added some great players so saka only getting better 😉. We have to tie him to a long time
We should absolutely offer Saka a better contract, he fully deserves it based on everything he brings to our team, however talk of £200k per week is too much
He’s still only 20 – and whilst one of OUR top players he’s still got room to improve so much, he really can be one of THE top players with more to his game
Offering £200k per week now then leaves us in a fix 3 years down the line, when he’s 23 and maybe 2 years left to run on the next contract. So by all means reward him for 2 outstanding seasons from him. But remember, he is an Arsenal fan, up through the Academy and has strong ties to the club and his teammates, with Saka it should not be about money alone, but the opportunity to improve further – with Arteta’s influence on wingers renowned, the opportunity to play with better players as evidenced by our transfer activities – and also the chance to show how he can be instrumental to our growing success (we all hope!)
Then, when he’s 23, we have room to wiggle with higher wages and hopefully by then a championship challenging force – and a vastly improved player (with maybe some more medals to show). That for me is a better long-term approach to developing a player who grows with the team.
Fast forward to then…the next contact covers his mid 20s, a high earner and a winner makes it even more compelling for him to stay with us into his best years to come