There have been many worrying recent rumours about the Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp having an unhealthy interest in Arsenal’s rising young star Bukayo Saka, and although us fans may consider it to be utterly ridiculous, the fact is that the Gunners may be forced to sell the 20 year-old if Edu and Areta can’t convince him to sign a contract extension.
So now, at least Mikel Arteta has confirmed that there will be in depth discussions with Saka and his family…
Arteta told the Standard: “It is a conversation we are going to have with the player, then his agent, his family — [talks] which are going to be extremely important as well — so everybody is on board.
“Obviously, our desire is to keep Bukayo as long as possible, because we are really happy. He is part of our club, our DNA, he is growing, he is maturing.
“His importance in the team is unquestionable and we want to keep our best talent, that’s for sure.”
There is no doubt that any new contract will come with a massive pay rise, which may have to match whatever Liverpool or other clubs would be willing to offer our England international if he refused our deal.
Arteta also wanted to emphasise the importance of allowing our youngsters to develop instead of bringing in proven stars which could hamper the development or our rising protogees, specifically Emile Smith Rowe, Gabriel Martinelli and Saka.
“Here there are two things,” Arteta continued. “It’s trying to build a squad that you have room for those players to develop, and the other one is to have those players developing when we are extremely competitive.
“Because if you sign three top players, and then those kids start not playing, what happens? You cannot have it both ways. If you sign big players, with big money, the money has to be on the pitch — which means that these players are not going to be on the pitch.
“So we need to find the balance, but with the standards that this club requires, which is to be the best. This is what we are trying to do, but without killing what is growing.”
So this is interesting, as it means that he would only bringing in players as backups to our youngsters in the summer, or more like more promising youngsters to develop with us as well.
It’s certainly going to be a fine balancing act while not trying to upset anyone….
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