Although the end of the 2022/23 Premier League campaign brought bitter disappointment for Mikel Arteta and his Arsenal side, the north Londoners can still be proud of what they achieved during the season.
That’s unlikely to be of too much comfort to a team that were odds-on to win the English top-flight title for the first time in 19 years, only to be pipped at the post by Man City after a late-season wobble.
What the Spaniard and his squad did show is that they’re made of strong stuff, and they’ll be back next season the better for the experience.
After all, it’s only in times of adversity that you find out how good your players truly are, which ones will hide and which will stick their heads above the parapet.
One player that led by example throughout the campaign was captain, Martin Odegaard. The young Norwegian drove his team on in times of utter despair, and he’ll surely want the chance to go one better in 2023/24.
Interestingly, the Daily Mail are reporting that Ligue Un giants, Paris Saint-Germain, have made ‘surprise soundings’ regarding the player, and it may well be that they follow those up with a summer bid.
They’ll have money to burn given that Lionel Messi is leaving and it’s thought that, if they’re able, they also want to get Neymar’s wages off of their books too.
Odegaard is certainly settled in north London, but you can never say never in football.
What are the odds that Ödegaard would leave The Emirates? I think very very very slim. The team that Arteta has built lacks at best 3 more main pieces and it will push anyone all the way and beyond. For the pieces in place already, no sane follower of the game would doubt that Ödegaard is one of them. Arteta can build by subtraction but that subtraction cannot and will not include Ödegaard.