According to Fabrizio Romano, a key Arsenal star will sign a new contract “soon”, while one factor “really made the difference” with William Saliba.
In recent weeks, Arsenal, who spent £250m in the summer to build a superb squad, have turned their attention to tying key players to new contracts.
They have prioritised talks with Saliba and Bukayo Saka, whose contracts at the start of this campaign only ran until 2027.
Saliba has been heavily linked with Real Madrid in recent months, but Arsenal have managed to secure his services with a new deal, which runs until 2030.
Now, Romano claims Arsenal are also close to striking an agreement with Saka, with a deal to be “done soon”.
“At the moment, there is a conversation ongoing also that one between Bukayo (Saka) and Arsenal, but also in this case, I would be very optimistic,” Romano said on the Men in Blazers YouTube channel.
“According to sources close to the club, this one can be done quite soon. Let’s see again the timing based also on all the details of the contract.
“You can imagine when you extend this big contrast, it takes some time to check everything on player side, on club side, to check the details. But Bukayo is super happy at Arsenal.
“The feeling I said at the beginning of our podcast that Arsenal are really at the next level of the project and where they wanted to be.
“Well, also Bukayo Saka has exactly the same feeling. He’s convinced that Arsenal are now reaching the best level possible and so very happy to stay to continue, not tempted by any other proposal.”
Romano has also revealed that one factor “really made the difference” in talks between Saliba and Arsenal.
“In the internal negotiations and discussions at Real Madrid, Saliba was always mentioned as one of the potential targets if he was not going to extend his contract at Arsenal,” Romano added.
“We always say here Real Madrid sees Saliba as the Bellingham of the defenders, but the ball is in Arsenal’s court.
“Saliba really wanted to stay. Arteta was fully involved in the process, talking directly to the player, bringing him behind the scenes of what they want to do for the present but also the future.
“And so this kind of project I think, sold by Arsenal to William Saliba really made the difference and then also obviously the financial proposal they improved at the end of August to convince William Saliba.”