Arsenal: Bukayo Saka won’t be impressed by club’s recent history

Arsenal have to lock Bukayo Saka down to a long-term deal, but they won’t be able to treat this situation the same way they have Ainsley Maitland-Niles.

Bukayo Saka continues to thrive at Arsenal, and as such, fans are begging for the 18-year-old to get a new contract. Lock him down and prevent him from becoming another Serge Gnabry. Please. For the love of everything. Just pay him.

Throughout the situation—if there even is much of a situation—Saka has remained quiet. But he has spoken out about how his aspirations of being a winger are still the top of his list, despite making such a strong impression at leftback.

This is a big deal. Saka has to be freed up to play on the wings, but thankfully, that shouldn’t be too hard to finagle. With Cedric Soares, Kieran Tierney and Sead Kolasinac all returning to training, it’s soon going to be a simple enough matter. Saka won’t have to play leftback ever again.

That said, there is still some delicacy to be found to this situation, and that’s because of what happened with both Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and now with Ainsley Maitland-Niles.

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Honestly, the treatment of Maitland-Niles is not a good look for a team hoping to extend Bukayo Saka. Maitland-Niles wanted to be a central midfielder, he filled in at rightback and he never escaped. No one was ever brought in to free him from his duties at rightback, and thus he became primarily a rightback while the midfield grew up and away from him.

Now, Maitland-Niles has been freed up with the addition of Cedric, but there really isn’t much opportunity in the center of the pack. There’s still an opportunity, but he’s been missing for some time now, not even finding a spot on the bench.

We can’t do Saka like we did—and are doing—Maitland-Niles. Saka has to be given priority. Maitland-Niles was something special at 18, but let’s be real here, Saka is on a different level, the kind of level you pull out all the stops for. He’s a tremendous talent and while you don’t want to cow and bend to his every whimsy, you do want to give him what he wants within reason.

That means not losing any of our leftbacks. That means making sure he gets his time at left wing. Really, that isn’t too much to ask for. It’s just that our track record—under different managers, granted—is less than exemplary in similar situations.