One aspect of Arsenal that has truly reached new heights besides their position in the league table is their competency when it comes to player contracts. Hard work has resulted in large portions of the group being signed up for the long term.
Under Edu and Mikel Arteta’s reign, Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka have signed two new renewals, William Saliba decided to extend despite early concerns about his tenure while others such as Martin Odegaard, Gabriel Magalhaes and Ben White have also renewed in the last couple of years. Despite the proactive nature of the policy installed by those off the field, it is something of a thankless task.
Time is the enemy and as soon as a season finishes, players are one year closer to their expiration with their club. The likes of Edu are therefore in constant contact with representatives and the players themselves whilst transfer stories, like we’ve seen with Saliba over the break, only worsen those tensions.
The club need to make many decisions as soon as before the end of the current season as some deals run toward their expiry. Both Jorginho and Thomas Partey will see their contracts come to the end in the summer with both now in their thirties.
Should the club opt against these two renewals then a big job emerges for Edu in the transfer market in 2025. Mikel Merino has indeed come in but there would definitely be an argument of depth issues should both aforementioned players be allowed to go.
On the other end of the spectrum is a player like Kieran Tierney who has just one year left to run come the summer. He is entirely out of Mikel Arteta’s plans and with his deal so low, a sale looks the only route out however the scenario means that a fair price for Arsenal is out of the question with a chance for a club to get a cheap deal – while extending for a year would be near-impossible to agree with a player who has little-to-no prospect of game time at the club.
