Bukayo Saka will be offered a new deal this summer for a reported £125k a week.
Edu, Garlick, Vinai… listen up reeeeeal close: 8 years minimum with an option for 4 more.
Thank you.
That’s good cash for someone that is yet to hit the 21-year mark in life. It’s also in line with players around Europe that are close to his level. Vlahovic, a £70m player, takes home £110k a week. I think Phil Foden is about £110k a week. ESR is about £90k.
Arsenal needs to have these young players tied down long enough to give us some stability and also to give us protection for when the vultures circle.
The Arteta formula for keeping Saka beyond his next deal is simple: Make Arsenal title challengers and Champions League contenders.
Arsenal made big mistakes under Wenger because we didn’t go the extra mile for world-class talents when it came to money… and ambition. Cesc would have stayed if we had invested in better centre-backs, a world-class keeper, and a proper defensive midfielder. We lost a plethora of top young talents because we weren’t at the stage of our development as a club where we could go big.
I suspect Wenger’s reticence to spend was linked to his recognition that too much accountability would shake his cushy job. Arteta has come in and demanded big money from the start. He’s told the board he is here to win titles. That confidence has pushed KSE to open the wallet in ways they haven’t in the past.
This summer will be big regardless of what happens now, but if we do make Champions League, still a huge ask, then it’ll be even bigger because we need to fill out a very thin squad.
The biggest signing will be a striker, no doubt, because most of our issues this season come from the fact that most teams in the top 6 have a striker that can be relied on for goals… we have the opposite, a striker that has dipped in front of goal so badly, it’s now just accepted.
This table above does tell a story: Being a goalscorer isn’t enough. We need someone that can link play, but also have the physical attributes to move into a position to be a threat in the box. Lacazette does more for the team than Auba, but he lacks the sharpness in front of goal to be a threat from our newfound strengths.
We basically need a Vlahovic / Oshimen / Nunez type character… imposing, fast, good on the ball.
Chelsea watch: it is INCREDIBLE that we have some real estate brothers that are hunting around for extra cash from investors to make their bid appealing… but not as delicious as the frontrunners being a collection of hedge fund managers. All of this SCREAMS indecision, argument, and a lack of direction. It also tells you that no one involved in this deal has Roman fuck you money.
If we can get to this sale without a Saudi in sight, I will be very, very happy… because it will spell pain. Pain, cultural change, player discontent, a less rich life for Chelsea fans.
Finally, Laura Woods of Talksport brutally took down Gabi A yesterday after he hammered Arsenal players for having a good time after winning at the weekend. Today, Gabi A owned it and apologised (good man).
“I was very bitter after the game”
“Where I was watching the game from the BT Sport studio, I could see the Arsenal fans all game. And seeing them celebrating after the game, I think it was a bit of jealousy. So I take that comment back and I apologise to Arsenal fans. Their celebrations were fine and I’m sure they will get that top-four position.”
Amazing stuff from Laura, I think I speak to every Arsenal fans when i say: Thank you.
Ok, I started this blog very early and didn’t finish it… why not just jump right into the podcast if you haven’t listened to it?
BM, I absolutely have an Arsenal bias, examples of which I have given over and over.
Messed up yellow and red cards ratios, fouls not called for similar tackles, pundit and media agenda, you name it. I just don’t dwell on them as much as others do, that’s the difference.
Rich , reading your responses to my posts I can inly conclude there aren’t any busy streets to navigate where you live. There can be no other explanation for you surviving to this ripe age of yours.
Must admit if Arsenal no longer existed my interest in football would be massively diminished.
Bob, I take it you don’t play three times a week and coach a youth team then.
There are other involvements than just watching games and posting on a football blog.
I get Tom’s perspective, take it given you have said before you got into football sometime in the late 90s too that you were late to get into it? Understandable given football would have been pretty low down the Totem pole in pre 1990s USA. I’ve only been following the UFC and NBA really closely for about 6 years and I cannot imagine not watching them now, just didn’t grow up with them over here. Football will always be my first sporting love and is the only sport I can speak on with any remote authority to a football noob… Read more »
BM.Think you nailed it with the Myles Palmer comparisons.A.hell of a lot to spout off on Arsenals so called failings whilst glorifying our rivals.Most if not all ( dissenter) would find that strange behaviour & to think otherwise is not blind faith.So let’s not play the “ reality” card.
Perhaps the moniker ought to be SON OF MYLES………..
Tottenham Tom
I generally do fine thanks, I did get run over on my bike as a kid, so I had to learn the hard way
But you know what they say, the bigger the fall, the better the lesson….
To become old + wise, you must first have been young + stupid..
Things usually have a way of going full circle, you went from supporting Arsenal to Spurs, maybe like the prodigal son, you’ll find your way back home again….
And I’d be a liar if I said that I was as in love with Arsenal as I was in my childhood/early teens especially when it would literally ruin my weekend when we lost a match.
Still have hope that it will return to its full capacity some day soon. I have been enjoying this season much more than previous ones so there’s that.
Tom, I was simply stating my Arsenal centric existence. I’m well past the age of playing and my boys have stopped playing football but even so I’ve always been obsessed with Arsenal and I stand by my statement.
Your acknowledgment of not putting Arsenal ‘first’ does explain some of your posts on here, an Arsenal blog not a general footballing. Your ‘ lack of bias’ does sometimes hit the wrong note as you well know!
Also really like many of the players we have now in ESR, Saka, Martinelli, Ramsdale.
ESR especially, barring pre-injury/ CAM advanced Cazorla he’s my favourite Arsenal player to watch since Cesc left and I am not even joking.
Weagle , correction…. I started following Arsenal football in the 1999/2000 season when I happened to catch some highlights on TV.
Groundbreaking stuff it was.
But football’s been in blood for 50 years ever since I joined a club at 6 years old.
Anyways, nice chatting with you all but time to do some work……and by work I mean reading up on history of Tottenham, or maybe some Kane or Conte bio.
Soccer made in Germany was we watched in black and white
That’s interesting Tom so you would have been in your 30s getting into Arsenal?
I can’t seem to pick an NBA team to follow, it just feels too random if I am honest. I am drawn more to players than franchises.
Favourite at the moment is Ja Morant.
Hahahaha Rich
You can only become wise if you stop being stupid. There is no guarantee that a stupid one will become a wise one.
Hearing reports Saka might be returning back to Arsenal. Some say he’s ill others are saying he’s injured dont know which one.
I definitely would rather have him return back to the Colney though. Thats Starboy right there, and we need him
Steve Nichol thinks that its Saka’s fault that he keeps getting hit. Says he doesn’t have the technical brilliance to get out of the way.
Makes me wanna look up ‘Technical brilliance’.
PSG is really a dysfunctional clown show
Talk is that Achraf Achimi want’s out because of the factions in the dressing room; Messi and Neymar run it and choose whom to talk to?
Guy’s a moron Naija as is Gerrard’s statement.
Two of the greatest dribblers of the modern era in Eden Hazard and Neymar were/are both washed up as 29/30 year olds because their ankles have been smashed to pieces over the years by frustrated defenders who couldn’t touch them.
Wenger Eagle “Two of the greatest dribblers of the modern era in Eden Hazard and Neymar were/are both washed up as 29/30 year olds because their ankles have been smashed to pieces over the years by frustrated defenders who couldn’t touch them.” Maybe the effective playing career of such players is no more than 12-15 years because defenders are just as athletic. There was a time when defenders were the less un-spritely footballers. In American football, the average playing career of a running back in the NFL is only 2.57 year. A dribbling player in football may face the same… Read more »
I disagree Dissenter, take a look up of Neymar and Hazard at Real’s injury rap sheets and it is grisly. Hazard lost mobility with his ankle injury at Real in his first season and has not been the same player, with Neymar he has had many ankle/foot injuries and they have finally added up to drastically reduce his speed and agility. Neymar was literally getting kicked off pitches in France, sure you could argue he maybe brought it on himself on rare occasions humiliating his opponents with rainbow flicks, etc but the fact remains that he was grossly treated by… Read more »
Neymar as recently as 2020 was making a fool of defenders and running rings around them on a weekly basis. Same with Hazard in 2019.
The sport hasn’t changed much at all in less than 3 years, has it?
”In American football, the average playing career of a running back in the NFL is only 2.57 year. A dribbling player in football may face the same occupational hazards.”
I don’t even disagree with this per se but that is also not to say that dribblers should not be afforded better treatment from referees and be more protected. Saka is not wrong in his assertion.
Wenger eagle You don’t think Neymar’s hard partying ways may have something to with his decline, then his decision to go to play for an unbalance team in a league that not so strong has rubbed off on him. Right now he’s plying huis trade for a disjointed side that is unable to play to his strengths because they built the team from up down, rather than in an organic manner. Hazard had accomplished a life time of success for Chelsea before he decided to go start again at 29 years old in another league. He would still be performing… Read more »
WengerEagle
Then your NBA team is Memphis Grizzlies hahahaha
It’s not though Naija because if Ja was traded I couldn’t care less about them haha. Well, Steve Adams too, that man is a beast and a proper geezer. We will have to agree to disagree Dissenter. Neymar is not R9 or R10, he lives a disciplined athletes lifestyle by virtue of him never rocking up overweight or even remotely out of shape. You just perceive him as a party animal going by his instagram it would seem. He has always been praised as being a very hard worker in training and he is actually less of a diva and… Read more »
Dissenter
I just find it hard to believe that Eden Hazard who dominated the league that is EPL, is struggling to make it in La Liga. His ankles are shot, thanks to his injuries.
37 year old Modric is still going strong too.
I mean R9 literally rocked up 25lbs+ overweight to Real Madrid and it was visibly noticeable. He also famously lived above one of the biggest nightclubs in Madrid and burned the candle on both ends. There are dozens of stories out there of Ronaldinho’s reckless lifestyle off the pitch but my favourite and the funniest were the stories and Xavi and others told of him literally coming to training still drunk/badly hungover and going to take naps in a darkened room in their training facility while training was on. He was also fat by the time he went to Milan… Read more »
Exactly Naija.
Hazard dominated the PL for 7 years and was the best/most consistent player within that timeframe. He has never won the CL either so I don’t buy the loss of motivation/hunger argument being put forward. He will go down as one of the best players ever not to win it.
Wenger Eagle/Naija
Eden Hazard reported to Madrid for his first day of work 5kg over weight.
If that’s not a pointer to a lack of motivation what else do you need
Modric moved to Madrid from Spurs, if leaving trophy less Spurs is not enough to whet a motivation, what else can.
Dissenter
He came back overweight to every pre-season camp in his x7 years at Chelsea too, it just wasn’t as blatant/covered as he was not in the midst of unveiling a £100m transfer new signing.
Listen to Terry, Lampard, Cech or any Chav legend speak about Hazard and they all say the same thing. By far the worst trainer at the club but was the best player when it counted on matchday.
It never impinged him in his x7 years at Chelsea being lazy and borderline unprofessional in training/conditioning.
Even Hazard’s first season at Real was actually very good and highly underrated. His numbers were amazing and he still looked reminiscent of his Chelsea self albeit with less direct goal contributions.
It was after getting badly injured that he fell off a cliff later on.
Went from averaging 3+ successful take-ons a match in his 1st Real season (among the leaders in Europe’s top 5 leagues) to just 1.0 per game in his second season and 1.2 this season. Anyone closely watching Hazard since 2020 will tell you that he is physically washed and cannot dribble through players anymore. That is a death knell for a dribbling phenom like him. Look at even Messi this season, his goalscoring has fell off a cliff because he no longer has the speed or ability to create chances for himself and is reliant now on team mates feeding… Read more »
WengerEagle
Not trying to be Nostradamus or anything but I knew JaMorant was going right to the top after I read up on his father’s interview. His father talked about how he used to train him. He had his son doing all kinds of unusual, extremely difficult stuff that would have most people complaining in training. Literally had him jumping through hoops and stuff. On top of that he’s selected as the 2nd overall draft.
Hazard certainly would have gone even further in his career if he had Ronaldo levels of motivation and determination.
Who is more talented and skilful, Hazard or C.Ronaldo ?
Is that even up for debate? Has hazard ever scored over 40goals while still having over 3 dribbles 1.5tackles over 2key passes, ever? Hazard Isnt as talented, productive, consistent as Ronaldo.
Raulishuss
I know it should be obvious right because he’s Ronaldo. Ronaldo is the better scorer and the most consistent goal wise but thats it. Goals are the most thing in football and Cristiano has mastered that art and the people rightly love him for it.
But I personally think Hazard is more skillful.