Saka wins PFA Young Player of the Year

Morning all, a quick Wednesday blog for you.

Let’s start with Bukayo Saka being named PFA Young Player of the Year for the 2022-23 season. He joins former Gunners Tony Adams, Paul Merson, Nicolas Anelka, Cesc Fabregas and Jack Wilshere as winner of the award – and who could really argue that he didn’t deserve it?

Erling Haaland was in this category too, but unsurprisingly he won the Player of the Year award, and Bukayo held off competition from teammate Gabriel Martinelli, Evan Ferguson and others. For Arsenal he scored 15 goals and provided 11 goals in all competitions, and at international level he scored consistently for England. He got three in the mid-season World Cup, not to mention a hat-trick in a European Championship qualifier in June.

He spoke afterwards, and was typically humble, saying:

Obviously, I have to give a lot of thanks to my coach and my teammates. I’m a player who first looks at winning team awards, collective awards. That’s my biggest dream. Obviously if I can achieve things like this and win awards like this it’s definitely another motivation for me and it goes a long way for me.

So definitely I’ll be looking to be back here next year hopefully but the first intention is to win trophies for Arsenal.

When you consider he is just 21 years old, the future that potentially lies ahead for him is so exciting. The fact he signed a new contract during the summer will allow us as Arsenal fans to relax a bit (as much as Arsenal fans actually relax about anything), and hopefully he can deliver like he did last season too. It’s two goals in three games so far, and I don’t think it’s unfair to say he – much like the team as a collective – hasn’t quite been at his absolute best yet.

There were also four Arsenal players named in the team of the season. Obviously Saka was one, and he was joined by Aaron Ramsdale, William Saliba and Martin Odegaard. The full team was: Ramsdale, Stones, Saliba, Dias, Trippier, de Bruyne, Rodri, Odegaard, Saka, Kane, Haaland.

In transfer news, as we head towards Friday’s deadline, Rob Holding is being linked with various moves, both domestic and abroad. There are stories about interest from Spanish clubs, with Sevilla and Mallorca both mentioned in dispatches, as well as Premier League side Luton who are keen to do a loan deal. Rob has a contract until 2024, but Arsenal reportedly have an option to extend for another year which might help facilitate a loan – although I’m sure the club would prefer to sell at this point.

It will be fascinating to see where he goes. If he wants to be a very busy defender and stay in England, Luton would be the obvious choice. I know it’s early days in the season but they look very much like a team that has come up to a level that’s a bit beyond them. He could help, obviously, but they must be odds-on to go back down, and I’m not sure how enjoyable it would be to play in a side that is going to struggle that much every week. Maybe that kind of defending would suit his game, but it’d be so different from Arsenal right now.

The move abroad would be much more interesting if the Spanish clubs could put together the right package. Wouldn’t you be tempted by at least a season in the sunshine, whether that’s on one of the Balearic Islands or in the south of Spain? Let’s see what the next few days brings for him, and some of the others we’re trying to move on before the window shuts.

Finally, it seems like we can chill a bit on the Emile Smith Rowe to Chelsea stuff. James says in his latest video it is ‘extremely unlikely’, which doesn’t mean it’s impossible, but I’ll take that anyway. It’s easy to forget we’re just three games into the season, there’s a lot of football to play, and things can change very quickly in this crazy game we’re all obsessed with. There’s also a bit of focus on Gabriel, a situation which makes me just a little nervy at the moment, but hopefully one that settles down.

Have a watch below.

Right, that’s your lot for today. Have a good one folks.

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