Rob Holding has signed a new contract at Arsenal tying him to the club until 2024 with the option of another year.

This summer, Rob Holding would have entered the final two years of his Arsenal deal, which is when you usually want to sell or extend. Given how regularly he’s featuring for the side right now, Mikel Arteta was clearly keen to avoid a departure.

Recently, David Ornstein reported for The Athletic that Holding had already extended his contract with Arsenal. Despite loan exit rumours over the summer, Arteta was never keen on losing the centre-back, viewing him as an important part of the club’s future.

Arsenal have now confirmed this new contract. They announced. “Rob Holding has signed a new long-term contract with us, running until 2024 with an option for a further year.”

Edu added: “We are very happy to have signed Rob on a new contract extension. He is 25 years old, so is still coming into the peak of his career, and we are delighted that he’ll be with us during these important years. Rob has shown great quality and maturity on and off the pitch in recent months and is developing well. We are looking forward to Rob continuing his progression in the years to come.”

More than Holding’s on-field contributions, it’s just good business.

Holding is a homegrown player, one of very few in the Arsenal squad right now. He joins Hector Bellerin, Calum Chambers and Ainsley Maitland-Niles – that’s it.

Of course, Arsenal have a whole host of u21s who will age up into the homegrown spots. But for most of them, that’s still at least a year or two away.

As a result, Holding’s extension does nothing to stop Arsenal signing non-homegrown players, and the club have no concerns over running out of homegrown places either. The 25-year-old’s contract extension won’t affect any potential defensive incomings.

Whilst most Arsenal fans are in support of the club letting Shkodran Mustafi, David Luiz, and Sokratis Papastathopoulos run their contracts down and leave, that can’t be the only way they do business.

If you never make any defensive sales, you’ll struggle to afford the players you do want. If you don’t have players on long contracts, transfer negotiations become very difficult.

So, when you have a homegrown starting centre-back, he should be on a long-term deal. It looks like Holding now is.