Can Arsenal keep hold of Bukayo Saka?

If Arsenal Continue to Falter They Will Lose Bukayo Saka

It’s a genuine fear. An understanding of the weakening position Arsenal hold in the football pyramid.

Should the season play out in similar fashion to what has happened over the past two campaigns then there can be no justified calls for Saka to stay. He deserves so much more and if Arsenal can’t provide it, someone else will.

Manchester City have all the wealth in the world. They’ll get him if they want. Does Pep Guardiola leaving in two years really change anything?

Before the summer began the need to bring the age of the squad down was clear. Deadwood needing shipping and players had to be brought in to build around the exciting young core of Saka, Emile Smith Rowe, Kieran Tierney and Gabriel Martinelli. The addition of players yet to hit their best strides, while encouraging, does not help the club in their quest for short-term success which in turn does not help them keep hold of Saka.

This is a young man with the courage, intelligence and ability to be playing at the highest level of club football. It’s frightening how magnificent he already is. He will only improve and if Arsenal don’t follow a similar trajectory then his best years will be played elsewhere.

Nobody would begrudge him or think any less of him. Saka may not know it now but when he comes to terms with how special a talent he is there will be a point of realisation where he sees that his boyhood club is holding him back.

It’s upsetting to think one day he will actually retire all together, let alone be seeing donning a shirt other than red and white.

We can brush this side of the doom and gloom under the carpet for only so long. After this season he will have two years left on his contract and even if he stays for a couple more campaigns it would be a departure that fans may never recover from. He’d be a club record sale without doubt, but you can’t put a price on everything.

Saka is the present and the future of this club. Arsenal have to build something to sustain that.