It wasn’t necessarily the case that Arsenal were happy to sell their best players to rival clubs in recent years, it’s just that bad contract management often left them no choice but to accept what they could as a transfer fee.
That does seem to be shifting in recent years as they’re being more proactive with extending deals early, and it looks like that’s the case with Bukayo Saka as well after the latest report from the Daily Mail.
They confirm that he still has two years left on his deal so this might not be a pressing matter this summer, but time goes past quickly and it could easily become a situation where he’s close to the last year of his deal and they have to accept a below-market bid.
It’s thought that Man City are interested in signing the England star, but Arsenal are willing to offer him more than double his current £70k per-week salary in order to tie him down to a new long-term contract.
If that happens then it’s great news for the Gunners as it shows that things are changing and they don’t always need to sell their better players, but there may be a problem in that Saka wants regular UCL football and it remains to be seen if that’s something that Mikel Arteta can deliver.
At this stage, it’s believed that the offer has been made to Saka although he’s yet to formally respond, so an imminent agreement still feels a little way off.