Former Arsenal man, Kevin Campbell, admits Bukayo Saka deserves a bumper pay rise in his next Arsenal contract, but he also insists it shouldn’t be as much as what Thomas Partey takes home now.
Saka is arguably Arsenal’s best attacker at the moment, and the Englishman earns less than a majority of the players on the club’s books.
When he signed his present deal in 2020, he was just breaking into the team, but he is now an integral part of it and a regular for the England national team.
He should ideally earn more than struggling Arsenal winger, Nicolas Pepe, and probably as much as the in-form Partey, but Campbell says he still has a long way to go before he can command such an amount in wages.
He tells Football Insider: “Saka deserves a new deal but he doesn’t deserve to be up there with Thomas Partey. Look, he is a young, talented player but he is not on that level yet.
“I don’t know what he is earning now but he will get a big rise. It will be significant, I’m sure.
“Saka will not be one of the top earners at the club though. He needs to do a bit more to earn that.
“He is doing so well that he has earned a new contract and if continues on this trajectory he will earn another new deal. That is the way it has to work. You don’t just make a young, gifted player the top earner. You only get that if you do crazy things.”
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Saka’s next deal will hardly be his last at the club, and his entourage could also negotiate a three-year or four-year deal, which means he would still be under-25 when he would get a new contract.
With that in mind, the club cannot offer him a mammoth contract now, because we would soon struggle to accommodate his demands in our wage structure.