{"id":556187,"date":"2020-07-01T05:12:21","date_gmt":"2020-07-01T09:12:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/?p=556187"},"modified":"2026-01-30T16:50:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T21:50:05","slug":"report-arsenal-finalising-long-term-contract-for-bukayo-saka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/07\/01\/report-arsenal-finalising-long-term-contract-for-bukayo-saka\/","title":{"rendered":"REPORT: Arsenal Finalising Long-Term Contract for Bukayo Saka"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/clubs\/arsenal\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Arsenal<\/a> are finalising the details of a long-term contract offer for Bukayo Saka, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/theathletic.co.uk\/1902349\/2020\/07\/01\/exclusive-bukayo-saka-close-to-signing-new-long-term-arsenal-contract\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Athletic&#8217;s<\/a> David Ornstein. The teenage sensation has just one year remaining on his contract and he had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.liverpoolfc.com\/news\/media-watch\/395419-liverpool-eye-shock-summer-swoop-for-bukayo-saka\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">plenty of Europe&#8217;s elite<\/a> sniffing around him. Now, though, it seems the versatile 18-year-old is set to stay in North London and kick on further under Mikel Arteta&#8217;s guidance.<\/p>\n<h2>Arsenal Finalising Long-Term Contract for Bukayo Saka<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Arsenal putting finishing touches to new long-term contract for Bukayo Saka that will settle future of brilliant academy graduate. Expected to be announced this week. Also intensifying pursuit of Atletico Madrid midfielder Thomas Partey <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheAthleticUK?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@TheAthleticUK<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/AFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#AFC<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/uzsvNPaKGI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/uzsvNPaKGI<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 David Ornstein (@David_Ornstein) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/David_Ornstein\/status\/1278218823620087810?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 1, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Versatility Vital for Arsenal<\/h3>\n<p>What makes Saka such a key component to this Arsenal squad is his ability to play in a variety of positions. When he first came into the squad he was deployed as a wide forward, as he was in the U23 team. Injuries then saw him play at left-back under Freddie Ljungberg&#8217;s temporary time in charge.<\/p>\n<p>He then played as a right-winger in the 3-0 defeat to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/clubs\/manchester-city\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Manchester City<\/a>, centrally against <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/clubs\/brighton-hove-albion\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brighton &amp; Hove Albion<\/a> and as a wing-back against <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/clubs\/southampton\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Southampton<\/a>, performing admirably in each.<\/p>\n<h3>Key to a Good Finish<\/h3>\n<p>While Saka has performed well since the restart, Arsenal, as a whole, have not. They have won just once in the Premier League &#8211; the 2-0 win away at Southampton and required a 90th-minute winner from Dani Ceballos to edge past <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/clubs\/sheffield-united-club-news-analysis-fixtures\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sheffield United<\/a> into the FA Cup semi-finals.<\/p>\n<p>Such form has seen the Gunners drop to 10th in the league and qualification for next season&#8217;s Champions League is now but a glimmer. With so many teams in close proximity to each other and all fighting for the same spots, even the Europa League may pass them by this season.<\/p>\n<p>However, if Saka can continue to perform, it will at least be one bright note at the end of a miserable season for the Gunners.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"_kW-DQshSLtK0vK4ZIJnew\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1253111189\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'_kW-DQshSLtK0vK4ZIJnew',sig:'-8ZDLwih7ZL0xzfVhf-0ntq51EcmrroXcYYCa_jrI3E=',w:'594px',h:'434px',items:'1253111189',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arsenal are finalising the details of a long-term contract offer for Bukayo Saka, according to The Athletic&#8217;s David Ornstein. The teenage sensation has just one year remaining on his contract and he had plenty of Europe&#8217;s elite sniffing around him. Now, though, it seems the versatile 18-year-old is set to stay in North London and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1144,"featured_media":556189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,30,3],"tags":[32739,32738,4211,4372,40,136],"class_list":["post-556187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-arsenal","category-news","category-premier-league","tag-arsenal","tag-arsenal-fixtures","tag-bukayo-saka","tag-mikel-arteta","tag-premier-league","tag-world-football"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1144"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556187"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":664471,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556187\/revisions\/664471"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}