Arsenal reaches verbal agreement to extend Bukayo Saka's contract

According to the Athletic,

 has an agreement in principle on a new contract for

. This report claims that the England international has not signed a new contract yet, and it may take some time to complete the negotiations, but an agreement between both parties is in place.

Sky Sports and Fabrizio Romano also claim that Arsenal is close to finalising a new long-term contract with Saka after he told the Gunners that he wants to stay at the club. Reports suggest that the 21-year-old Saka will earn more than £200,000 per-week in his new contract and will become Arsenal’s best-paid player.

In his press conference on Friday,

was asked about the news around Saka’s contract extension.

He said:

"No news on that.

"When it is done, I can tell you more but obviously we have the intention to extend the contracts of our best players and when it is done, it is great news for the club.”

Arsenal’s manager also insisted that they want to create a long-term project.

Arteta added:

"That's what we have to do, that's our responsibility. To keep our best players, the players we are developing and our best people. Those that have the same aims and same purposes as the club.

"We want to create a long-term project here and for that we need our best players to be committed to the club. To stick them together for a while, create stability and from there keep it going to become a better club and keep evolving.

"It's part of developing a team and a squad, and as well taking the club where we want.

"It is maximising the resources we have and we have huge resources because we have a lot of talent."

The Arsenal academy graduate has scored 33 goals in 162 matches for the club, including 10 goals this season.

Follow

for the