Not for the first time in recent months, and it certainly won't be the last until a new contract is signed, sealed and delivered, the future of Bukayo Saka has become a hot topic.
According to 90min, Manchester City's future transfer plans following news of Pep Guardiola penning a new two-year contract involve trying to sign the Gunners winger as well as his England international teammate Jude Bellingham after the pair impressed at the World Cup.
In addition, the report states that City have held an interest in Saka for a long time and are taking an active interest in his contract talks with Arsenal as his current deal runs out in 2024. The feeling is that if he doesn't agree to renew it's likely that City will be given the green light to pursue a move at some point in 2023.
READ MORE: What Mikel Arteta meant with bizarre Bukayo Saka comments amid Arsenal winger's issue
Of course, given how important the 21-year-old is to the north London outfit and the fact he is one the brightest prospects in European football currently, the longer it goes without an announcement regarding a new contract, supporters will have to put up with talk of an exit.
However, the Gunners can afford to be relaxed about the situation as football.london understands they can trigger the option to extend his contract by a further 12 months - taking it to the summer of 2025 instead - and such a clause puts the club in a far stronger position as talks go on with his representatives.
Furthermore, as previously reported by football.london, Arsenal are confident of tying Saka down to a new long-term contract with the winger himself dropping a clear hint by investing in an executive box at the Emirates Stadium and it's understood those stances have not changed.
With that said, what City's ambitious transfer strategy does do is hand the Gunners an incentive to trigger the contract clause, at the very least, whilst talks continue as that would go someway to thwarting their Premier League rivals' plan to pursue a move for Saka at some point next year.
Interestingly, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has gone on record stating his belief that Saka will soon commit his future to the club: "I am very confident that we as a club and Bukayo, his family, his agent, everybody, we are very much aligned in what we want to achieve," the Spaniard said at the beginning of the season.
"And now it is about putting it on a piece of paper. I would like that to get done, because I don’t want the player or anybody distracted while we are in the middle of the season. But those things take time and they have to go through the right process, and I think the process has been really good."
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