Arsenal striker rejects new contract with transfer likely

Arsenal worked tirelessly to trim their bloated squad and add fresh faces to it, an overhaul that has been ongoing for a number of transfer windows and will continue in upcoming ones.

The striker situation is one everyone is well familiar of by now and as it edges closer the January transfer window, some movement may be on the cards in a bid to solve the issue.

Nothing will be concluded by the winter, but steps can be taken towards building towards a future without Alexandre Lacazette, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Eddie Nketiah.

It is the latter of those whose situation has moved one (more) step closer towards reaching its inevitable final destination as The Athletic have revealed that Nketiah has rejected a new contract by Arsenal as he seeks for regular minutes.

Arsenal striker Eddie Nketiah rejects new contract with January transfer sale a possibility as Arteta looks to bolster forward areas

The 22-year-old was offered an extension on his existing contract on Tuesday, with a rejection already being confirmed as soon as Wednesday. Mikel Arteta has publicly stated his desire to keep hold of Nketiah, and the decision to turn down this offer is said not to be financially motivated.

Why on earth is Eddie ever going to say yes? And, perhaps more importantly, why on earth are Arsenal offering him a new deal in the first place? They want the tribunal to award them a decent fee should he move on a bosman in the summer, but we wasn’t going to take it, and were the previous offers not deemed acceptable? They made their own bed on this occasion.

Lacazette looks certain to leave in the summer and Aubameyang will have only one year left on his deal by then, with the player the club entrusted to take over Nketiah’s place in the squad being Folarin Balogun.

Nketiah is yet to make a Premier League appearance this season and has been on the bench only twice. He wants to play and he isn’t doing that at Arsenal. The club have made attempts to keep him on numerous occasions previously and each has received the same answer.

But it’s quite clear Nketiah is not the man to transform the No. 9 position in this team. He isn’t at that level so there is no need to be kicking the can down the road. Sell and move on. If Arsenal are so desperate to keep him then it can only be because they want to make some money off his eventual sale, for if he was truly valued for his quality then he’d be playing matches.

Clubs across Europe will look to tie him down to a pre-contract agreement and good luck to him to find the right one. Not even making the bench at 22 years old is no good for his career and Arsenal’s failure to secure loan deals or sales of late has left him in a position where he needs to put himself way out in front.

Now it’s all about trying to get as much as they can in January to avoid him leaving for free in the summer. Hopefully, in the quest for minutes, that’s a move Nketiah would also prefer as a January deal seems more likely.