The Arsenal captain Mikel Arteta was up on the podium at Wembley collecting the FA Cup on Saturday, despite not playing in the game, but Arsene Wenger has since revealed that he fully expects the Spaniard to sign a new contract extension with the club to stay at the Emirates for another year.
Due to injury Arteta has only played 11 games this season, but the 32 year-old recently said that he would re-sign if he felt he was fit enough to play a part for Arsenal next year, and Wenger obviously thinks he is going to be ready. “Yes he has a part to play,”
“He went up to the lift the trophy up. Of course he feels a little less part of it because he wasn’t in the squad today but he will be next season.
“I think he has nearly signed.”
The fact is that if Wenger keeps either Mikel Arteta or Matthieu Flamini at the club as backup to Francis Coquelin, then where will there be room to bring in someone like Arturo Vidal?
One position where Arsenal may definitely need to buy is in left-back, as it has been revealed that Nacho Monreal, who only has one more season left on his contract, has refused to sign an extension with the club, and may be headed back to Spain with Athletic Bilbao.
The 29 year-old has been great this season and has kept Kieran Gibbs mostly on the sidelines, but Wenger has continuously named the younger Gibbs as being important to the club’s English ‘core’ and perhaps Monreal may feel he is more guaranteed to play if he goes back to his homeland.
He could be a great loss to our settled Cup winning side next season…..
Did JACK really say that about the SPUDS in public!