23 Sep 2017 06:48:15
Having been forced to sell Oxlade and either sell both Ozil and Sanchez in January or lose them for nothing, we have allowed the contracts of Ramsey and Welbeck to run down to 18 motnths. This leaves the players in a very strong negtiating position, whereby they either demand an absurdly high deal or run their contract down and get the benefit financially when signing for a new club.
This failure to deal with contracts with two years to run looks to have cost the club a fortune.
23 Sep 2017 09:51:39
Thing is. Why does everyone say we let them. Who’s to say we haven’t been trying?
23 Sep 2017 10:05:26
16 mate we should have got to the stage we they signed or we sold them, that's how we let it happen.
With 2 years left on their contract we have the upper hand so either they extend or we sell for the maximum fee we can get, with 1 year left it's 50/ 50 because the players value drops as our hold weakens and obviously once the contract is up we've lost any control at all.
We've played our hand extremely badly.
23 Sep 2017 13:51:20
I get what you’re saying but we can’t sell every player just because they have two years and don’t wanna sign yet.
23 Sep 2017 14:02:25
And the fact it's happened many times, makes it appear that it's been a deliberate ploy to keep them on the same wage as long as possible and save a few quid rather than renewing a year earlier. I can't remember us renewing any contract with 2 years left, that would show we don't try before then. Contracts we've let go to the wire that stand out, being oil, Sanchez, Walcott a couple times, ox, kos, bellerin, rvp, clichy, saga and I'm sure most others.
23 Sep 2017 14:25:11
Correct - players and agents hold the power. Anyone who thinks a club let's all their contracts run down without blinking an eye is plane stupid and blindly anti-Wenger or the board.
I don't think too much of the board but I doubt they are that stupid
It's said that over 100 players started the EPL with 12 months left to run on their contracts - over 100!
Not saying they are star players like Ozil or Sanchez but that's a lot. I am not fussed about the Ox leaving especially as we got strong money. I want us to invest and play good pressing football with a passion for the club badge and fans.
23 Sep 2017 15:35:01
What if you operate with a policy of 2 years minimum remaining on all players under 30 contracts? A player could always extend his current contract by 1 year at a time if they were happy to stay for now but no committ long term.
Everyone would know where they stood, any player wanting out simply wouldn't extend on their terms or accept our increased terms either so we would invite offers of for them while already have a replacement in mind because we were aware of the situation well in advance.
23 Sep 2017 18:58:58
I see what you’re saying. Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying it’s not the board I’m just saying we don’t know and need to look at it from both angles. I’m sure we don’t just leave it so late but who knows. I do think however in modern football the players and agents tend to hold the cards more than the clubs unfortunately.