Arsenal face Bukayo Saka transfer reality Tottenham know well amid major Mohamed Salah admission

Of all the players Arsenal supporters would be loathe to lose, Bukayo Saka would be top of the list. The Hale End graduate is the Gunners' star boy.

Saka is Arsenal through and through, and signed a new contract in north London last summer. That deal runs until 2027, when Saka will be 26-years-old.

He has come through the ranks at Arsenal and grown as the club has grown. He is the player - despite his tender years - that the supporters look to for inspiration, look to for something special when they need it. And more often than not he comes up with the goods.

Any thought of him leaving the Gunners is folly, but Arsenal must continue to improve at the same rapid pace as their starboy if they are to keep hold of him for the entirety of his career.

Speaking after signing his new deal in 2023, Saka openly hinted at his ambition. The desire to win silverware and make his career count is strong.

"I’m just really happy. There’s been a lot of talking and it’s been a while, but I’m here now. I think this is the right club, the right place to make the next step," he said. "It’s a beautiful club - look where we are."

That 'next step' comment is key. Saka will expect to make more 'next steps' as his career goes on. Will they all be at Arsenal?

"For me, it’s about achieving my personal ambitions; how much I push myself and demand from myself each game, week in, week out," he added. I think I have everything I need to become the best player I can be, and that’s why I’m happy to stay here and be here for the future, because I really believe that we can achieve big things."

Saka certainly does have everything he needs to become the best player he can be and the fact he may not already at that level is scary.

The concerning thing for Arsenal will be that the world's best teams will always be interested in the world's best players. Saka currently only has an FA Cup winner's medal to his name, albeit he is only 23.

The Gunners only need look to the other side of north London to see how things can turn for important homegrown players. Harry Kane felt the need to leave Tottenham in 2023 after failing to win any silverware that his incredible talent deserved. A move to Bayern Munich for £100million followed and while he did not win anything in his first season, he looks set to rectify that this year.

Arsenal have finished as runners-up in each of the last two Premier League seasons. They are so close. But nine points adrift of Liverpool already this year and things look tough to reach that top spot this time around.

You get the feeling that they need to win something sooner rather than later, to keep the best players at the club happy and not itching for more. And Saka is one of those.

Saka's name will come back to the fore now and in the January transfer window and summer transfer window due to movements at aforementioned Liverpool.

The Reds could lose Mohamed Salah either mid-season or in the summer, with no movement on a new contract for the Egyptian, with his current deal due to expire in 2025. "Well, we are almost in December and I haven't received any offers yet to stay in the club, [so] I'm probably more out than in," Salah said after the win over Southampton.

Salah can talk to foreign clubs in January over a free transfer in the summer and Saka has been one name brought up tipped to be a replacement for the Liverpool frontman. There is, let's be honest, no better natural replacement for Salah than Saka.

It would take an extraordinary offer to Arsenal and to the player himself to coax him away from the Emirates Stadium and there is no indication that that will happen. But Saka is too good not to win trophies and Liverpool - and others - have much more pedigree in the recent past than the Gunners when it comes to lifting the biggest trophies.

Arsenal need to continue to develop at the pace Saka is to keep him and others and keep clubs like Liverpool at bay.

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