Noel Whelan believes that Bukayo Saka could endure a tough summer if Arsenal fail to finish in the top-four.
The youngster has been amongst our best performers since breaking into the first-team at the age of 17, and before the age of 20, he was voted as Arsenal’s Player of the Year for the 2020-21 season and had earned himself a place as a regular in the England senior side.
His progress this season may have been overshadowed by some of his team-mates, but he is enjoying a fine campaign with six goals and four assists from his 20 PL appearances thus far.
Former PL boss Whelan claims that he is set to come under pressure from his agents if his side fail to manage to earn passage into the Champions League, with some of our rivals having been credited with an interest in his signature.
“Saka’s had such a quick rise at Arsenal over the past three seasons,” Whelan told the Football Insider. “He has become a hugely important player and commodity for them.
“Saka will not want to leave Arsenal, he will desperately want to get them into the Champions League this season.
“But there will be pressure from his agent. There will be whispers and people talking because teams in the Champions League will want a player like Saka in their side.”
There is nothing that I’m seeing or hearing from Saka that tells me he would be swayed by any interest from our rivals just yet, and our progress in recent seasons should be enough to keep both him and our other young future stars happy at the Emirates.
I’m not naive enough to think that will remain the case in the long-term however, should we continue to fail to break back into the Champions League, but this summer shouldn’t be much of a big deal, but with just two years remaining on his current deal come the end of the term, we may well want to look at extending his terms in order to protect our interests and assure him of his importance to the club with another wage increase.
Do you think Saka could be persuaded to consider a move to one of our rivals this summer?
Patrick