Hypergooner wrote:Why won't we be able to sell Saka this summer? He is great and all that but he is not irreplaceable for the right money.
We need to start being bolder in our negotiations like Daniel Levy! David Dean would not have allowed these contract mistakes to keep happening! Why should we be different to all the other clubs in the league when it comes to this stuff?
Tell these players to sign or f**k off! As you mentioned, it's a WC year. We hold the keys to their future. I am convinced Saka will sign but if he plays hard ball, it's be sold or don't play this side of the world cup.
It doesn't work that way, unfortunately.
From the club's perspective, If we sell Saka this summer, the club would have to double-down on all the PR it's dished out since Arteta took charge.
There are possibly five clubs that could pay big money for Saka—City, Liverpool, PSG, Real, and ManU. Real and PSG aren't interested for now. ManU have their own issues. That brings it down to City and Liverpool. None of them are desperate to sign Saka.
If shit really hit the fan, we still wouldn't get more than £75m for Saka even if we did decide to sell him. If we do sell Saka, it'd put KSE is extreme negative light.
Saka has all the balls in his court.
You mention Dein. But remember, he's one of the players partly responsible for the existing state of the club. It's something that's not mentioned enough.
Levy asked for £150m for Kane. City's offer was £80m + £20m in add-ons. City weren't willing to go over £100m for Harry Kane. They're not going to break the bank for Saka.
That's ignoring Kane's unwillingness to move abroad; Kane being England captain and his dream of breaking Shearer's arbitrary Premier League goalscoring record.
ag6789 wrote:I don't see a big problem in setting a high sale value in his clause. If he doesn't agree now , he still has two years to think about it. If we do well this season, he'll probably change his mind, if not he'll go, nothing much can be done about it.
If we had made CL this last season, and next year, MC or Chelsea approached Saka with double/treble his salary, he'll go anyway ( play all kind of games then like Cesc). Loyalty means nothing in football nowadays.
That's the problem though. Loyalty is a two-way street.
Do you think clubs are loyal entities? Are players sole culprits in this existing model we live under?
Far from it.
Clubs don't think twice before dispatching players if they're surplus to requirements. It's unrealistic to expect an individual to remain loyal to a corporate entity when the latter doesn't want to reciprocate.
We're desperate to extend Saka's contract because he's a high-value "asset," today for Arsenal. If events take a tragic turn, we wouldn't bat an eyelid before disposing him.
I don't think it's become as apparent. But football—and society in general—has devolved into a dystopian reality. We're simply accustomed to it, hence, we think it's the norm.
Sports-people have limited time-frames to achieve their goals, to earn money. We can't blame them for optimizing on self-security when their stock is high. If they don't protect their interests, clubs surely won't.
As Zenith mentioned, we've seen an increasing trend of players running down their contracts. In fact, Wenger predicted this back in 2015. Just look at the Mbappe drama. He had both PSG and Real Madrid dancing to his tunes and ultimately, took the most lucrative financial proposition on the table. It wasn't that solely but he'd have won either way.
If Saka wants to leave, it's not out of a lack of loyalty. He's simply looking out for himself. If he doesn't, or his agent doesn't, the club isn't going to. That's the cold truth.