Tony Adams: Bukayo Saka is second only to Lionel Messi… Arsenal should build a whole squad around him to conquer Europe

WHEN Manchester City paid £100m to sign Jack Grealish 18 months ago I couldn’t believe they didn’t even try to buy Bukayo Saka.

Even now I’m amazed Arsenal have been able to hold on to a lad who is already one of the brightest talents in the world.

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Hopefully they will tie Bukayo to a long new contract soon so I can stop worrying.

Like me, he’s a London-born Arsenal fan who graduated from the academy and has the club in his blood.

But while the Gunners hierarchy is fairly confident that he will never leave them, they should never take that loyalty for granted.

If Arsenal hadn’t shown the commitment I was looking for back then, I would have gone like a shot out of the door when Manchester United wanted to buy me in 1996.

But they proved their ambitions by signing Patrick Vieira and Nicolas Anelka and that was good enough for me to sign on the dotted line.

Now Mikel Arteta and the board must convince Bukayo to stay by making it big again in the transfer market this summer.

Playing in the Champions League next season will be a whole new ballgame for this Arsenal team.

And it’s going to be really difficult for the current team to keep up at this level and fight for the title at the same time.

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We all saw what happened when Mikel rested a couple of his big boys in the Europa League the other day.

The substitutes looked average and were played outside the park by Sporting Lisbon.

Right now they need Bukayo, Gabriel Martinelli, Martin Odegaard, Thomas Partey, Gabriel Jesus and Oleks Zinchenko to play every week because they have a team that almost chooses itself.

But I am sure they will give Bukayo this hefty new contract to keep him at the Emirates because they know he is irreplaceable.

If there is a better player in world football right now, someone who both scores and scores goals, the only one that comes to mind is Lionel Messi.

Bukayo is absolutely on fire and the reason Arsenal are top of the table.

Erling Haaland may score hundreds of goals for Manchester City and Marcus Rashford is also having a phenomenal season for United.

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But Bukayo is undoubtedly Footballer of the Year because he was England’s best player at the World Cup and was the team’s best player, eight points clear at the top of the Premier League.

I first saw him about five years ago at a youth team game at Forest Green and I could tell right away he was something special.

I immediately contacted him because I wanted to know who takes care of him, if he has a good family and a decent agent.

He told me, “I’m fine Mr. Adams, my family is fine, that’s fine, I’m talking to that person.”

I knew then that he would go far.

We’ve stayed in touch ever since and I got in touch with him after he missed that penalty in a penalty shootout in the Euro 2020 final.

He appreciated the contact and the next time I saw him at Emirates he gave me a warm hug.

If there is a better player in world football right now, someone who both scores and scores goals, the only one that comes to mind is Lionel Messi.

Tony Adams on Bukayo Saka

He’s such a lovely boy, so respectful and polite. The boy has talent, but he also has brains.

And he still calls me “Mr. Adams”.

I still don’t understand why Gareth Southgate sent him off 15 minutes from the end of England’s quarter-finals against France.

Mind you, I’m still amazed that Gareth, Arteta and Unai Emery have all tried playing him at left-back at some point.

It was interesting that England didn’t select Ben White for this week’s Euro qualifiers against Italy and Ukraine after he came home early from the World Cup.

I can understand Gareth thinking he has better right-backs available but I don’t think White will give a monkey.

He likes what he does at Arsenal and he likes the players he plays with, so he just keeps going.

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He claims he doesn’t really like football, but some guys I’ve played with said the same.

It’s a defense mechanism and some young people need that.

Well, it’s only because they care.

In my early career I much preferred going to the pub than joining the England squad because I was afraid of that environment and didn’t feel comfortable in that environment.

There were a lot of very big characters taking care of themselves and it was a real dog-eat-dog world.

After EURO 1988 I fell victim to Wolves and there was nobody who put an arm around my shoulders like I did with David Beckham and Michael Owen when I was England captain ten years later.

I also had my addiction at the time, which is why I loved listening to George Graham tell me I was injured and should retire from national team duty.

Mikel will know how George felt after losing Jesus to injury during the World Cup and then seeing Rodris tackle Odegaard the other day.

He wants everyone fit and available for the title run because although Arsenal have a huge lead by April they still have no margin for error.

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