Arsenal: Bukayo Saka following in Joe Willock footsteps

Arsenal are reportedly already looking to tie down Bukayo Saka to a new contract. The 18-year-old is following in the footsteps of Joe Willock, who was rewarded with a new deal earlier this season.

Increasingly so in the modern era, football clubs are wising up to the importance of securing the futures of their young talent. While in previous years, there was a complacency and an arrogance from the top clubs that they would always retain their prospects simply because of their name, more recently, young players have shown a willingness to explore other options, meaning that clubs have had to adapt.

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Arsenal themselves have experienced this. Serge Gnabry demanded that he leave because he was frustrated at his lack of playing time. Reiss Nelson very nearly followed out the door, especially after he saw his friend Jadon Sancho flourish as a result of the decision to leave Manchester City. And now it seems as though the club has wised up to the threat of losing talented players for very little.

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In early September, after he made an excellent start to the new season, the Gunners agreed to a new long-term contract with 20-year-old Joe Willock. They had no interest in even getting close to the stage where they might be forced into selling. And now they are reportedly set to make the same decision with a fellow academy starlet, Bukayo Saka, who has started the last three Premier League games.

The 18-year-old Saka has impressed in his first-team outings thus far. Unai Emery rewarded his strong performance in the Europa League with three successive starts in the Premier League. And even as Alexandre Lacazette prepares to return from injury, there is no guarantee that Saka will lose his place, potentially even usurping £72 million Nicolas Pepe as the number one wide option at the club.

And so, according to reports in the British media on Friday morning, Arsenal are keen to lock down Saka’s future before anything gets out of hand. Very much like Willock, they want to ensure that their burgeoning young talent will not leave on the cheap.

This may seem like an obvious thing to do. Even if Saka does not become a first-team contributor at Arsenal, by locking down his long-term future, the club protects his value and ensures that they can sell him for top dollar. But for many years, the top clubs have not acted this way. They grew complacent, and it started to bite them.

For the Gunners, this is very much trying to avoid the ghost of Gnabry. Bayern Munich’s Player of the Season, who has just scored four goals, left the club for a pittance when he had just one year remaining on his contract and refused to sign a new one. There was no choice but to sell. The message is clear: the Gnabry debacle will not be repeated.

This contract does not mean that Saka is guaranteed to be a first-team player at Arsenal for rest of his career. It simply protects the club from the worst possible outcome. In that sense, he is following Willock’s footsteps, and then some.