Arsenal player confirms he will not sign a new contract as future plans laid bare
One of Arsenal’s summer signings has already laid out his future plans pretty clearly.
One Arsenal player has already confirmed the club he will join when he leaves the Emirates Stadium. The Gunners have enjoyed a very solid start to the season, with their Premier League title race now on course again despite an early-season wobble.
Somehow, after only seven games, Arsenal have fallen five points behind Liverpool and then come back from that deficit to lead the Reds by one point heading into the international break.
We seldom see such ups and downs from the leading teams so early in the season, but Arsenal have benefitted from it, and they look as though they have the upper-hand when it comes to possessing a squad with serious depth in multiple positions.
That depth has already shown, with Cristhian Mosquera looking like a hit when stepping in at centre-back, while Eberechi Eze is a luxury substitute for Martin Odegaard when the Norwegian is not available.
Another of the depth players Andrea Berta and Mikel Arteta managed to snap up in the summer is Christian Norgaard, who is effectively a back-up for the likes of Martin Zubimendi and Declan Rice in the holding midfield spots.
Norgaard is yet to make a Premier League appearance for Arsenal, making one appearance in each of the Carabao Cup and the Champions League. The Dane signed a two-year contract with Arsenal, and at the age of 31, he has already decided that Arsenal will be his last club outside Denmark and that he won’t renew his current contract beyond the one-year extension option.
“I can guarantee that Arsenal will be my last club abroad. I still want to return to Brøndby when my contract at Arsenal expires,” he told BOLD. “My contract is two years with an option for a further year. And I would be happy to stay at Arsenal for the extra year if things develop in that direction. If it turns out that it wasn't the right match, we'll go home to Denmark after two years.”
The built-in extension only needs to be triggered by notification, and so Norgaard is confirming that he will not be signing a new Arsenal contract at any stage.
Arteta praise
In September, Arteta spoke about Norgaard’s professionalism recently when he came off the bench in a September Champions League clash. He said: “Something that we always discuss is that the finishers have to impact the game, and Gabi and Leo came on to make the difference for the team. They was outstanding and the rest of the team as well. In many moments, they were at a very good level.
“When someone is able to win the game in those actions and be so clinical, it’s exactly what we need because the threat can come from different ways and different players. I’m very pleased with that.
“It means that [Gabi and Leo] are connected and they feel that they are really, really important. We have discussed that a lot. We’re going to need that. Piero [Hincapie] comes in and plays five minutes and so does Christian [Norgaard], and it’s the best five minutes of their lives. That’s the spirit that we need amongst the squad. If we have everybody at that level, we’ll win a lot of games.”
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