There seems to be a strange changing of the mind at Arsenal after boss Arsene Wenger decided that the club might have to sell contract rebels Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez in January.
Both players are out-of-contract next summer. Neither player looks likely to sign a new deal, despite claims from Ozil’s agent that the two parties have held positive talks.
Wenger admits the pair Arsenal may sell the pair
Asked about the player’s situation and if there was a deadline for either to sign new contracts, Wenger told the press: “No, not at the moment.”
When asked if the club may sell the pair in January, Wenger said: “Once you are in our kind of situation, we have envisaged every solution yes.
“It’s possible.”
The suggestion that Mesut Ozil may stay at Arsenal seems fanciful to me. The German playmaker has endured mixed fortunes with the club and it seems more likely he will seek pastures new either in January or next summer.
Arsenal created this mess
This is a mess of Arsenal’s own making. I mean who allows two players of such value and profile go into the last 12 months of their contracts. Financially speaking these two players are the clubs most valuable assets. How can it have come to this?
For me, it has been apparent for at least six months that both players see their futures elsewhere. Wenger was clinging to the hope that Sanchez may change his mind, or if he stayed he could help the Gunners back into the top-four this season.
Sanchez came close to leaving on deadline day and joining Manchester City for a fee reported to be £60million. The only complication that stood in the way of the move was that Arsenal failed in a bid for Monaco star Thomas Lemar, who was regarded as the Chilean’s replacement.
If Arsenal sells Sanchez in the January transfer window, they will get nowhere near the £60million that they could have recouped on deadline day.
The fact that the Gunners could have almost doubled their money on Sanchez, despite the player being in the last year of his contract was quite incredible. However, that was down to the inflated transfer market.
The Gunners are now only likely to receive token transfer fees for both Sanchez and Ozil in January if of course, they decide to sell. My question would be why did they not sell the pair earlier in the summer and bring in replacements?
Arsenal would have received big fees for the pair and moved on with players that actually want to play for the club.
Bookmakers backing pair to stay until the summer
It seems the bookmakers still believe that the Arsenal pair will stay at the club beyond January, as Ozil is 1/8 to stay at Arsenal beyond January, while Sanchez is slightly shorter odds of 1/3 to still be an Arsenal player on February 4th.
Arsenal never seems to learn when it comes to allowing players to run their contracts down. A number of high-profile players have run their contracts down in the last decade. They have either run their contracts down or left in a cut-price deal instead.
I can see both Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil staying at the club until the summer. The pair will both then get big moves, involving big signing-on fees and bigger pay packets elsewhere. You cannot blame the players for wanting more money and better chances of winning the big trophies.
The Arsenal hierarchy and Arsene Wenger are the ones to blame for the financial disaster of losing the pair on free transfers next summer. For an intelligent man, Wenger allowing the current situation at the club is not the smartest of moves that is for sure.
