Reliable BBC journalist David Ornstein has confirmed that Arsenal defender Calum Chambers will sign a new long-term contract with the club, just months after his last extension.
Writing on Twitter, Ornstein revealed that Chambers will sign a new four-year contract on Friday, taking him to 2022 with the club. Chambers only signed his last deal back in October, lasting until 2021. However, Unai Emery has a lot of faith in the player, and is proving that with this new contract.
Calum Chambers will today sign a new 4yr contract with Arsenal to keep him there until 2022. Only signed 2yr extension in Oct 2017 that tied him down until 2021 but new head coach Unai Emery sees huge potential in 23yo + wants him to compete for starting berth at centre-back #AFC
— David Ornstein (@bbcsport_david) June 29, 2018
As mentioned, Emery wants Chambers to compete for a starting place next season. This perhaps gives us a hint as to Arsenal’s transfer plans for the remainder of the window, given that Shkodran Mustafi, Laurent Koscielny and Sokratis Papastathopoulos are already in the squad fighting for starting places.
If Chambers is also considered as a possible starter, as well as potentially Rob Holding or Konstantinos Mavropanos, then Arsenal might be done with their centre-back signings in the current window.
It’s good to see Emery continuing to make moves to either commit players to the club or offload them. We’ve already seen Jack Wilshere leave, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Granit Xhaka sign new deals, and it seems like more new contracts are to come.
Hopefully soon the new head coach will have the squad set up exactly as he wants it for the coming season.