Mikel Arteta plays down reports Arsenal to offer contract extension

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has played down reports suggesting he could be offered a new, improved contract this summer. The former club captain has a deal which lasts until the end of the 2022/23 season and The Sun claims the Premier League side want to give him a new three-year contract worth £8.3m per year.

Ad/> Arteta is reportedly on £5m per year currently and he also offered to take a 20 percent pay cut while football was played behind closed doors during the worst of the coronavirus pandemic. Premier LeagueArteta says it will be ‘incredible’ to see Eriksen play again18/02/2022 AT 17:00 Arsenal are four points off the Champions League qualification places, with three games in hand over fourth placed Manchester United.

The first opportunity to claw back some of that deficit will be against Wolves tomorrow night. “Listen, it’s just that I am really happy here and my aim is just to build, with the club, a winning team,” Arteta said ahead of that match.

“A team that people enjoy watching, that they can identify with and that can transmit what we want football-wise and as an organisation.” /> Arsenal go into tomorrow’s game on the back of two successive wins after hitting a sticky patch since the turn of the year having registered five games in all competitions without a victory, which included a surprise defeat at Nottingham Forest in the third round of the FA Cup. Arteta says they are making progress and although he would not be drawn on reports he could be rewarded for that, he hinted a new deal would be forthcoming if they continue on that upward trajectory.