Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil are at the centre of Arsenal’s latest contract saga – but they are just two of TEN first team players whose contracts are currently set to expire in 18 months’ time.
Gunners fans are desperate for Sanchez and Ozil to sign up to new deals, but both are playing hardball at the moment as they hold out for higher wages.
Either they will sign new deals, be sold this summer, or they will let their contracts run down and leave on free transfers in June 2018.
But Arsene Wenger has confirmed there are eight other players all in the same boat – and said the club is working on new contracts for some of them.
“That explains to you why we have a lot of work to do, but you are only interested in two cases,” he told reporters.
(Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)
“There are six or seven cases at the moment, but that is the usual case — it is every year like that.”
The full list is:
- Alexis Sanchez
- Mesut Ozil
- Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
- Santi Cazorla
- Olivier Giroud
- Mathieu Debuchy
- Per Mertesacker
- Kieran Gibbs
- Jack Wilshere
- Wojciech Szczesny
Per Mertesacker and Santi Cazorla’s current deals end in the summer of 2017, but Arsenal have the option to extend both for 12 months, and Wenger confirmed Cazorla at least will get a new deal.
“We have started talking to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain,” he said, “and we start as well, and will extend certainly, with Santi Cazorla.”
While it must be fairly routine for clubs to be juggling a similar level of expiring deals at any one time, Wenger stressed that no player is bigger than the club – and suggested they would not be held to ransom by Sanchez and Ozil.
When asked if the Gunners needed to keep the pair he said: “Yes, but Arsenal is a big club. It is not one or two players who will make the difference to the club.
“The importance is that we are today in a financial position that is strong, that was not the case before. That means as well we are in a position where we can plan our future, and do what we want to do.
“And what is important is always to take care of the values of the club, and the identity of the club, and not to depend too much on one or two players. The history of Arsenal is bigger than that.
“You regret every single good player that you lose. But on the other hand, you move on as well. Every club is full of regrets and full of decisions. What matters is the globality of the decisions.”
