Arsenal has just renewed the contract of Bukayo Saka in a long-term deal. The club had been negotiating with the Englishman for some time now as he entered the final year of his previous deal at the Emirates.
The likes of Liverpool and Manchester United had been monitoring his situation, but he decided against leaving Mikel Arteta’s side.
Sun Sports claims that the teenager has increased his salary by tenfold to £30,000, it is a commendable increase and probably more money than the teenager would have expected to earn at this stage of his career.
However, it is still too low for a player that is one of the first names on our team sheet at the moment.
To put it into some context, Callum Hudson-Odoi who has played 14 league games, scored once and provided four assists, earns up to £180,000-a-week at Chelsea, according to Goal.com.
Saka is a more important player at Arsenal than Hudson-Odoi is at Chelsea in my opinion, yet you can see the difference between what they earn.
Next season, Chelsea will probably be competing for the Premier League title and Arsenal will expect Arteta to do likewise as soon as possible.
If we want to start competing and getting top players to join us, we need to show them that we can take care of our top-performing stars and that means paying them a wage competitive with our top-six rivals.
How long has Odoi been in the chealsea first team? Saka has been in the arsenal first team for less than a year. Let’s be realistic. This is only Saka’s second proffesional contract . He can’t really expect to earn too much.
But we have been! Arsenal have had one of the highest wage bills for years, not just in England, but across Europe. Our problem has been paying huge wages to deadwood, thus we get nothing back. Ozil being the perfect example.
ThirdMan,
you got in before me!
However, I think that Saka deserves to be well paid and hope he keeps delivering. The Hudson Odoi contract is crazy money
Saka deserves to be paid well because he is among our best players at arsenal though he’s still a teenager.
We’re paying champions league wages on a europa league budget!! Our players earn plenty!!!
I don’t know of any 18 year olds earning 30k a week and playing for the team you support, he’s living the dream!! I can’t see him being on that for the entirety of his contract… he’ll be offered more, much more at some point! I read we’re to offer Martinelli a new contract….
I too. can’t understand Martin’s article, we’re a club that have one of the highest wage bills in Europe. Ok, Saka starts on £30,000 a week, not bad at 18 years of age but it’s a long term contract which I’m sure will rise as he gets older and possibly represents his country. So £350,000 a week for Ozil is not top six wages LOL.
I never actually wrote this piece and forgot to add the writer’s name and wont do it now as it may look like I am avoiding the criticism (justified in my opinion) regarding this particular piece. I wont make that mistake again
Fair enough Martin
Haha if that isn’t Kenny, then what is??!! 😀
👍👍👍
Saka is really a star and a play marker.
Saka is still a prospect growing up, if u give him too much money now u can destroy his career talk sense. That 30k is ok for 18 yrs
I thought most of our players are on at least £100,000 a week.
Just think about that. £100,000 a week.
That is a Top Top class wage structure to me.
The problem is that we have are paying all that to average players.
We have one player on more than £300,000 a week that offers absolutely nothing to the team but is receiving that much.
Smh 🤦♂️
I dont agree, contract are a function of various different factors that are not constant. Ozil was able to get the ridiculous wages based on the event of the time, such as Sanchez refusal to renew and the remaining period on his existing contract. Two person might get employed to same post at same time but with different pay package.
All this does not necessarily dictate performance or shows one is bigger than the other, on the contrary, he who earn less might perform better, however, in a proper arrangements, there should be accountability.
I disagree we don’t pay top wages, 30k is a reasonable amount for an 18yr old Saka, who could get pay rise in 2years with a good performance if he keep up this pace of development
Fans moan when we pay big wages so I doubt they will be happy if we start acting like a big club .
Paying big wages to average players is why we moan.
And we wouldn’t moan if these players were giving us good performances. What hurts is that we are paying top wages and the players at not giving us value for money. We have been struggling to as a team for seasons but our well paid players still receive their massive wages per week.
That’s all.
It’s part of our evolutionary nature and development. FAIRNESS is a very big part in us humans. If you think that someone is not deserving of the massive rewards they keep getting then your fairness instincts kick in.
It’s part of life.
£30k a week is ok for an 18yr old…what’s wrong with that? Okay, if you give him £180k now, when you renew the contract, how much will we offer him? If we give them crazy wages at a very young age, they may just get comfortable and stop working g hard…that will hamper their progress, we have seen it before anyway.
Don’t really see the point of this article, we have been paying Top six wages to mediocre players for years and 30K is a resonable wage for an 18 yr old in his first season which will undoubtedly get increased, probably year by year.
Martin he got a 1000% pay rise, for god’s saka
We have been paying higher wages, we were the third highest in the league 2 years ago, dont know now but anyone who understands finance and football know we are restricted by finances by FFP. You vant just throw money at players willy-nilly, it has to be justified by you making more money, generating more money and keeping within FFP guidelines, of which we were nearly maxed out. People should not get into talking about finance as it is too complicated for us uneducated.
Have you seen our wage bill? We are one of the highest payers in the Premier League. I think our wage bill is about twice that of spurs!
Arsenal is a top 4 PL club side that has won the PL title many times before, and has been paying it’s players the top 4 PL wages. If the club has not been paying PL top 4 wages to it’s players but paying them say, top 7 – 10 wages, how come then that the current PL top 4 players in the 1st team squad have continue to remain at the club? Wouldn’t they have moved elsewhere thereby consequently reduced Arsenal to mid table outfit below it PL club side?
I think the problem with the current Arsenal team is largely the lack of motivation to win the PL title mostly within some of the senior team players in the last 3 seasons or so to perform to sustain the PL title winning chances the team has to win the title or a least make the top 4 place finish whenever the team is placed with these chances to win the title but if it doesn’t sustain those winning position chances it had.
£120k/m wages is huge for the 18 year old Arsenal player Saka, and he knows it. Let him further show he’s grateful to the club for it’s given him this incredible chance of promoting him to the 1st team squad and now he’s been given a long contract by stepping up his current average performance form for the team in my own view to a top PL title winning performance form on the consistent basis for the club. And I believe the club will reward with improved wage earnings.
Arsenal is a top 4 PL club side that has won the PL title many times before, and has been paying it’s players the top 4 PL wages. If the club has not been paying PL top 4 wages to it’s players but paying them say, top 7 – 10 wages, how come then that the current PL top 4 players in the 1st team squad have continue to remain at the club? Wouldn’t they have moved elsewhere thereby consequently reduced Arsenal to mid table outfit or below it PL club side?
I think the problem with the current Arsenal team is largely the lack of motivation to win the PL title mostly within some of the senior team players in the last 3 seasons or so to perform to sustain the PL title winning chances the team has to win the title or at least make the top 4 place finish whenever the team is placed with these chances to win the title but it doesn’t sustain those winning position chances it had.
£120k/m wages is huge for the 18 year old Arsenal player Saka, and he knows it. Let him further show he’s grateful to the club for it’s given him this incredible chance of promoting him to the 1st team squad and now he’s been given a long contract by stepping up his current average performance form for the team in my own view to a top PL title winning performance form on the consistent basis for the team. And I believe the club will reward him with improved wage earnings.
I was staggered when I read this article and thought it must have been written by someone under the influence of alcohol or worse.I have nothing to add to the many sensible responses.
Is an increase of 10 times on one’s wage 100%? I thought 100 percent would be in this case 6000! Anyway this is for mathematicians to determine and I am not one. However this article is defective as it does not consider the pros and cons of giving too much money to a teenage player. It might become counter productive for several reasons: The player might become complacent and lose his focus: he would in all certainty demand much more in about two years which, if not honoured, could lead to the player being dejected and losing interest in the team. Wages should be paid on a progressive trend to keep the individual working hard so that he can earn more. If one earns top wages too early what will motivate one to improve their performance? Let us be rational as we discuss these issues and avoid posonng the minds of youngsters!
Correction: poisoning