The famous footy journalist David Ornstein is known as the Arsenal Oracle because of his close contacts within the Arsenal camp, and we always sit up and listen when he speaks about the Gunners.
He has now recently been commenting on the contract talks with Bukayo Saka, and admits that although there had been some progress before the pandemic struck, Arsenal are still in competition for his signature from other clubs.
Ornstein told the Athletic: “They nearly had an agreement before shutdown. So that came at a really bad time for Arsenal in that sense. It’s close but until pen hits paper you never know.
“The will of all sides is to extend. But the deal has to be right. There is plenty of interest in Saka from other clubs, too.”
This is very worrying, especially as the 18 year-old only has 12 months left on his current deal and could force the Gunners to sell him if he decides to go elsewhere for a better deal.
It would certainly feel like a betrayal if Saka decided to move on, considering that he was nurtured through the Arsenal Academy from the tender age of 7 years old, and has been touted as a star of the future since being fast-tracked into the Gunners first team. I, for one, would certainly be very disappointed in him. Wouldn’t you?
Yes I’d be very disappointed in him and he’d be added to my list of ‘little sh*ts’
Clubs Fault club should keep their word no more players running down their contracts..
I mean we had a lock down so whay the hell have they been doing for three months it isn’t hard to Email a contract to a player and his agent takes whole of a minute.
what a joke our club is becoming be ruthless offer the contract sign or go it is simple
What exactly does Raul do?? So much for the players running down their contracts being a thing of the past!
I’d say right now, he hasn’t fared much better than Gazidis! All he wants to do is negotiate installments… if Saka does end up going to one of our rivals, I’ll be so bloody angry!
Me too Sue. But Arsenal are the experts in football hara-kiri so while angry I wouldn’t be all that surprised. Like you, I don’t have much confidence in the powers that be at the club.
Hey GJ! Hope you’re well 👍
Hara-kiri – you’re not wrong 😂
It just gets worse, doesn’t it?!
Raul is the man in charge with contracts transfer fees players who come and go..
This mab has done no better then the prevo lot he and jog on with the rest look how much money the Luiz deal has cost us yes giggles for Chelsea now look where we are the man is a joke
Spot on Danny!! 👍👍
We have a poor management and cheap tricky owner, no more coach manager but an assistant.
Youth are confused, as top players are not reassured, have no vision on where we going. No clarity beside a club totally lost, sinking…
Auba or Saka do not commit because of that. Every top players and youth are feeling same way.
Sorry typos on my phone.
If the boy thinks he is bigger than Arsenal FC what does this tell you our skipper won’t sign and a boy had to think about it..
Shame on those running Arsenal I do not wanna bring Wenger into this but I will say the player young or old rubbish or good would play for him even of his tatics we’rw dated.
The Arsenal model is still dated and not moving forwards other clubs arw now going past us all top 4 clubs go for the players they want and pay a price if a player wants to leave they sell straight away
Even Fergie back in the day did not mess about with Beckham.
Do you know every team in our division says we are soft a love puppy club we can’t live of history values and beauty we must be more stern and ruthless or this will be the mess
Hope it’s not another player thinking he’s better than he actually is .
He had a great break out season ,but me personally don’t see much star quality with him ,great at what he did last season but seen players like him come and go plenty of times ,Martinelli on the other hand !
Just hope Martinelli was being ‘saved’ for today’s match. I cant see any other reason for not playing him on Wednesday.
I did reply to your post yesterday but Martin pulled it and turned it into an article.👍
I’m sure Arsenal has offered him a good contract for a teenager. If he does sign a contract for say 5 years he’ll still have most of his career left to move on if he wants. Although he looks good now who knows how he will develop in the next few years. If he won’t sign then get rid along with Auba if he won’t resign. Fed up with these contract negotiations dragging on.
You right. But not about them resigning but club lack of ambition, direction and poor management.
According to the article the deal has been agreed on, remain only signature, that shouldn’t be a problem if the player himself is not been manipulated by some persons who probably thinks he is now bigger than the club that nurtured him for such a long time.
Not everytime we blame the management, even the players themselves, and those useless agents of theirs have lots of gimmick up the sleeves to hype the price, drag the process and cause mayhem.
One thing I hate the most is player stalling on contract, they should be man enough to table their demands. For example, as a big player like AUBA, he needs explanation on the board ambition, if he isn’t pleased he should move on, but in the case of our players I guess their only concern is the pay.
When Fabregas, Nasri and even RVP left, I didn’t blamed them much, I reckon they went in search of glory which the board couldn’t promise them, that is better than stalling for long, only to make ridiculous demands when the club has been forced to a desperate situation
Adajim – I didn’t blame those three for leaving either.
In the case of RVP I distinctly remember reading a somewhat obsure article in which he stated that he’d had a good, long talk with Wenger and came to the sad conclusion that there was absolutely no ambition at our club.
Maybe this was forced on Wenger by whatever circumstances were prevailing at the time, I don’t know.
But put another way, it was absolutely clear to RVP that the club was going nowhere and he was going to be dragged down with it. Only sensible thing to do was to get out. If you’re in a boat that’s sinking only sensible thing to do is abandon ship.
Unfortunately the fans, not knowing the whole story, vilified him from that day on. He didn’t go for the money but to fulfil all footballers hopes and dreams. Can’t blame him for that. The Ox followed suit – I think he even too a pay CUT to go to Liverpool.
I don’t really understand the critical comment’s about Saka should he decide to leave the club.
The truth is that Arsenal are in a mess (and have been for several seasons). It must be difficult for a young, talented, player to decide to stay when more successful clubs, with a fewer problems, are knocking at his door. I really do hope he stays, but I accept that – unfortunately – he’ll have valid reasons if he looks elsewhere.