Arsenal-focused writer Tim Stillman recently made an appearance on the Football Today podcast, where he discussed the future of Arsenal’s squad and, in particular, the future of David Luiz.
Host of the Football Today podcast, Josh Schneider-Weiler, brought up Luiz when he mentions a recent article from The Athletic (9:30) which reported that the Brazilian centre-back has cost the North London club ‘up to £24m’ for just one season. The Athletic’s report breaks this down by explaining that the Gunners spent £8m on Luiz’s transfer fee, in addition to £6m which Arsenal paid to ‘intermediaries to fix everything up’, as well as £10m on the player’s salary.
The 33-year-old’s contract is now set to expire at the end of June and, as per The Athletic, the Gunners will have until 23rd June to decide on whether or not to offer him a contract extension.
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When discussing Luiz’s future on the Football Today podcast, Stillman raised some doubts over whether or not the 33-year-old will be offered a new deal with the club.
Stillman stated: “David Luiz is a player that, ordinarily, I think Arsenal would want to keep, but the current financial situation has complicated that because he’s a big earner, and if Arsenal can’t get rid of other centre-backs, then they might have to make a decision on him.
“Arsenal have lots of centre-halves but they don’t really have any top-class ones and they don’t have a top-class partnership. So I think what they’re really looking at is William Saliba, who comes in this summer and he’ll be able to play next season.
“Pablo Mari is a player that’s come in under Arteta, so he’s someone that fits what Arteta wants to do. And whether that ends up being the long-time partnership, we’ll see.”
Should Arsenal offer David Luiz a contract extension?YES
NO
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TIF Thoughts…
Luiz, who is currently valued at £10.8m by Transfermarkt, has played the third-highest amount of league minutes of any Arsenal player in the league this season, however, he has earned an average overall rating of just 6.68/10 from his 25 league appearances, according to WhoScored, which is a lower rating than 13 other Gunners players have earned in England’s top flight this term.
Additionally, Sokratis, Calum Chambers, Shkodran Mustafi, and Pablo Mari, all of whom have played at centre-back for the Gunners this term, have earned a higher average overall rating in the league than Luiz during the 2019/20 campaign.
With that in mind, it may be understandable why Stillman has questioned whether or not the Gunners should offer ‘big earner’ Luiz a contract extension.