Andrea Berta has started his new role as the Sporting Director at Arsenal.
Berta arrives at Arsenal from Atletico Madrid, after Edu resigned from the Gunners earlier this season.
Arsenal were shocked by Edu’s departure, but they’ve now found the Brazilian’s replacement.
Berta arrives at Arsenal with a big job on his hands. After all, Arsenal need a big summer transfer window and a new striker.
Alexander Isak is Arsenal’s dream striker target, but before Berta goes out and signs a marquee number nine, he has some in-house issues he needs to solve.
According to Fabrizio Romano, Berta’s current top priority at Arsenal is to get Bukayo Saka signed down to a new contract.
Bukayo Saka contract is Andrea Berta’s top priority
Romano spoke about Berta’s priorities at Arsena.
The journalist says that the new Sporting Director’s top priority is to get Saka tied down to a new deal.
Importantly, Romano noted that Saka is happy at Arsenal and that the Gunners are relaxed about this situation.
“Yeah, we will touch on several names, but I wanted to start with the top priority, which is absolutely Bukayo Saka. Bukayo Saka is out of contract in summer 2027, so it’s not something urgent, it’s not a worrying situation for Arsenal. But in general, Arsenal want to give a new contract to Bukayo Saka,” Romano said.
So some contacts have already started. Now Bukayo and his agents will have the opportunity to meet with Andrea Berta to understand the strategy from the new director, and that’s always something important. You can start the conversation already months ago, of course, but then you need to speak to the new director to understand the view, to understand the project, and this is what’s going to happen with Bukayo Saka.
So the conversations are going to continue. Arsenal are very relaxed because they see Bukayo very happy at the club. He’s fully focused on Arsenal, now back, and he will be available to face Real Madrid in Champions League.”
Arsenal’s contract situations analysed
Berta wants to deal with Saka’s contract as quickly as possible, and there are some other contract situations that the Sporting Director may want to address soon.
Indeed, Jorginho’s contract is up this summer, as is Thomas Partey’s, and both players are still relatively important to this Arsenal team.
Beyond that, William Saliba is due a contract renewal at the Emirates, while Arsenal may also want to look at Leandro Trossard and Oleksandr Zinchenko’s situations.
Arsenal contracts expiring in 2025 | Arsenal contracts expiring in 2026 | Arsenal contracts expiring in 2027 |
---|---|---|
Thomas Partey | Leandro Trossard | Bukayo Saka |
Jorginho | Oleksandr Zinchenko | William Saliba |
Takehiro Tomiyasu | Gabriel Martinelli | |
Gabriel Magalhaes | ||
Gabriel Jesus |
The summer transfer window will be key for Arsenal, make no mistake about it, but Berta will also be judged on how he gets on in terms of getting these players’ contracts renewed.
Arsenal fans will be hoping for some positive news on the Saka front in the coming months.