Paul Merson believes now is the time to give Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe new Arsenal deals.
Both England internationals have become two of the finest players at Arsenal in the last few seasons.
Mikel Arteta is building his team around them and the Spanish manager will want both players to remain in the long term.
As Arsenal struggles to return to the top four, both players have admiring glances from other clubs.
They could easily be persuaded to move away from the Emirates if the club doesn’t tie them down to new deals.
Former Gunner, Merson believes they should sign an extension now. If the players hesitate, the club should sell them.
He wrote in his Star Sports column: “They are top drawer and they are going to be vital to Arsenal finishing in the top four this season. But I think Arsenal should get them tied down now.
“They should be talking now about five year contracts. Get them signed, and if they don’t want to sign, then sell them in the summer.
“Don’t hang around and let them run their contracts down and let them go for next to nothing. Test the water because there will be teams chasing them.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
We cannot lose Saka and Smith Rowe for whatever reason, and keeping them will show we mean business.
At some points, both players will feel they need to win trophies. It is our responsibility to build a squad that can achieve that around them.
If that happens, it should be easy to keep them happy at the Emirates.
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I totally agree we need to build a team around ESR and Saka (and Tierney and White and Gabriel and Ramsdale and Tommy).
However, it appears that Arteta has a different agenda.
He seems to want to lavishmoney on another winger (Arsensio) to work with Nellie, to compete with ESR and Saka.
I would rather we kept Pepe for the rest of his contract, and spend what money we have available in the summer on our two main needs.
(Don’t forget people, a lot of Kroenke money will be lavished on fixing their biggest Arsenal asset, Emirates Stadium, in the coming summer break!!! This seems to be much more a priority for KSE than buying new players (hey maybe we get another couple of cheap Americans to fill our needs).
I keep reading about Arteta wanting to get a right back to replace Soares. I believe both Saliba and White can play right back if needed. Neither will cost any money to replace Soares if we let him go.
Before we try to buy another winger and another right back, I feel we really need to focus on getting that TOP CLASS CF and DM.
We all know the need for a tip of the spear striker, so let’s concentrate on him first!!
If/when we sell Elneny we will only have young Lokonga as a back up in defensive midfield, so we certainly will need a new body there. This is an important position so we have to buy a top player (Xhaka can then join Lokonga as back ups off the bench.
We could in fact sell Xhaka and have AMN as back-up off the bench instead).
Lets get the CF and DM positions filled first, and if there is any money left, then I suggest we buy a young second striker (or perhaps keep Lacazette for another year, or even keep Eddie N).
Just my view of possible summer activity for AFC, and one I am not sure Arteta and Edu would agree with.
We definitely must try to push saka to sign new contract.
But somehow if he don’t want to sign extension after this season ended, we should SELL SAKA this summer
We won’t let him run down his contract to one year left which other club can negotiate for lower fee or even worse walk for free like ramsey
Both these guys recently signed extensions. I don’t know why former players create this angst around the team. Leave them be.