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Ian Wright picks the big name player Arsenal need to sign to help convince Bukayo Saka to stay

Charles Jones

Tue 14 January 2025 16:15, UK

Arsenal have come on leaps and bounds in recent years under Mikel Arteta, but the trophies haven’t followed.

Indeed, Arsenal have been one of the best teams in England in recent times, but they’ve continuous𒉰ly fallen short when it’s mattered, and they haven’t won a tr🤪ophy since the FA Cup in 2020.

Aওrsenal have the players who are capable of winning trophies, and those players may look to move on if the Gunners can’t prove they’re capable of competing at the very top level.

William Saliba has been linked with Real Madrid, while Bukayo Saka is a world-class player and he won’t be short of suitors.

Saka and Saliba are both heading into the final two years of their contracts, and speaking on th🐓e𓆏 Wrighty’s House Podcast, Ian Wright has been discussing what Arsenal now need to do to keep their star players.

• READ MORE: ꦓPaul Merson has just predicted the winner of the North London Derby between Arsenal and Tottenham

What Arsenal need to do to keep their star players

Wright spoke about the idea of losing Saka and Saliba, claiming that the Gunners need to make a big-name signing to show that they mea🥂n business.

Wright suggested that Jamal Musiala is the player Arsenal n𝄹eed to sigꦇn in order to make a statement of intent.

Musiala has been linked to Arsenal in recent times🧸🐬, so a deal could potentially be possible.

“Obviously still waiting for Merino. But I’m not sure if that calibre of player, as good as that player is at the moment, is 🙈the one that’s going to make Saliba, Gabriel or Saka in their last two years say, ‘I’m staying because of what he’s going to bring’. They need☂ to bring a player in or players that they can say, these guys are serious,” Wright said.

“But right, only because you look up the r💮oad with Liverpool, right? Whatever reason why Liverpoo🌄l took their eye off the ball and got these three guys in the situation where they’re in the last years of their contract. If Arsenal are watching that happen and we end up in the same place, which let’s face it, right?

“These guys after this year are in that place, what’s going on there? They need to do some unbelievable business 𒆙in the summer, right, to make sure that these guys are not thinking, you know something, I’m not feeling this right now. I’m not feeling it right.”

“You know the noise. I don’t know if he’ll come, I don’t know w🔴here he’s going, because obviously him and Jude are big mates or whatever. But see someone like Musiala, that is the kind of player that when Saka, Gabriel or Saliba’s here, Musiala, that’s who we’re linked with, those are the players that make people like them man take notice.

Those are the players. Because I think that what’s happening now, we can see it with the fans, they’ve got no patience with what’s going on at Arsenal at the mꦬoment because of last season, the season before and the progression. So you saw it at the start of the season, we lose a couple of games, we draw a couple of games, everybody, everybody’s like, oh it’s over.”

Arsenal record signings

Wright says that Arsenal need to make a statement of intent with a big signing to convince Saka and Saliba to stay, but Arsenal’s business in recent years has already made t♔hose kinds of statements.

Indeed, it’s not as though Arsenal haඣve rested on their laurels in terms of their transfer business, they’ve been pushing and break🌊ing their transfer record regularly in recent years.

Of course, the arrival of Musiala would probably eclipse the £105m Ars🎶enal spent on Declan Rice, but it’s slightly unfair to suggest that Arsenal haven’t been pushing the boat out recently in ter♏ms of transfers.

Arsenal are also looking at Alexander Isak in ༒a deal that would cost over £100m, so the Gunners do have ambitions.

There’s a lot you✤ can say about this Arsenal team in recent years, but one thing you can’t say is that they lack ambition, this squad has been invested in and they are looking to win major trophies in the near future.