Laura Woods is adamant that Bukayo Saka will not become the latest Arsenal star to go off the boil after signing a mega-money contract as he prepares to become the Gunners' highest earner.
Saka, 21, has been locked in negotiations with the Arsenal hierarchy for months over a new contract and is set to quadruple his wages to around £300,000-a-week once he officially puts pen-to-paper on the agreement, which has been reached in principle according to The Daily Mail
Arsenal have been stung in the past after handing out big deals, though, with both Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Mesut Ozil failing to live up to expectations after landing bumper paydays.
Both were eventually offloaded by Arsenal, with Aubameyang even being stripped of the club captaincy by Mikel Arteta due to disciplinary breaches. But Woods, who is a big Arsenal fan, believes there is no danger of Saka following suit.
She told talkSPORT : “Saka has been nothing short of spectacularly consistent – and consistently spectacular – all season. It’s well deserved. I understand a little bit of trepidation with giving a massive contract to a 21-year-old and the way Arsenal have been burned in the past.
“We signed Aubameyang up to a similar deal in 2020 and his form fell off a cliff. He ended up in numerous bits of trouble. You can go back to Ozil being given £350,000-a-week to sit in the stands with an umbrella.
“Those two are high-profile cases, but I like to think this is a very different player and very different personality, made of some real stern stuff. He came back from Euros, after missing that penalty, and kicked on. I understand it’s a lot of money, but that’s football. If you didn’t pay him that at Arsenal, he’d get it somewhere else.”
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Saka, who will snub interest from elsewhere and commit himself to the club until 2028 when he puts pen-to-paper, has played a crucial role in Arsenal's unlikely title challenge after chalking up 12 goals and 10 assists in the Premier League this term.
And he insisted that Arsenal do not fear Manchester City - or anyone else - as they bid to scoop their first domestic title in 19 years when the league resumes at the weekend.
“We don’t fear anyone,” Saka insisted after the Gunners' emphatic 4-1 win over Crystal Palace prior to the international break. “You can see the way we play, even when City came here. The prize at the end is worth giving everything for. We have the belief and the desire that we want to do something special this year. And nothing can stop us, especially not being tired.
“We are not going to pretend we don’t know who we are playing next because we have ten finals to go.”
