Never mind the managerial situation, the lack of change, the mediocrity of the last few years or the social media outbursts after every defeat, the real showing that Arsenal are in a crisis is right there in the fine print.
With the revelations that 12 first team players’ contracts expire in summer 2018, the Gunners face a disastrous uncertainty with or without manager Arsène Wenger staying on.
Arsenal facing another anxious summer regarding contract extensions
Now admittedly, both Per Mertesacker and Santi Cazorla had their contracts extended for one extra year earlier this season, are both 32-years-old and for various reasons neither man are holding down a first team berth, meaning that their losses at the end of next season may not be as deeply felt as some of the others.
The same could be said with the likes of Carl Jenkinson and Yaya Sanogo or possibly even Wojchiech Szczesny and Joel Campbell, the latter two being loaned out again this season.
However, that still leaves six potential first team players coming to the end of their current deals with no renewals in sight with Arsenal potentially about to lose Alexis Sánchez, Mesut Özil, Aaron Ramsey, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jack Wilshere and Kieran Gibbs.
No matter your opinions on any of the twelve players it doesn’t make for happy reading that potentially a dozen players are leaving at the end of next season and only goes to show Arsenal’s hierarchy haven’t learnt from the failures of previous years.
You’ll struggle to find another top European club that’s so lax on keeping players under contract for longer, not only are Arsenal staring at losing their top two players next season but this isn’t even the first time with the likes of Mathieu Flamini, Samir Nasri, Bacary Sagna and Robin Van Persie all leaving at the end of or with less than one year left on their contracts in the last decade.
In the case of Nasri and Van Persie, leaving just before their current deals expired brought their market values down considerably, Van Persie joined Manchester United for just £22.5m, a rather cheap fee for the then PFA Player of the Year.
That could be the fate of Sánchez and Özil now should they not re-sign in the offseason, Arsenal’s two biggest purchases may have made bigger names for themselves in North London but with the possibility that either one could manufacture their own free agency move in January 2018, the chances the Gunners could re-coup all of the fees they paid for each of them are slim.
It begs the question, how the Gunners board keep allowing it to happen, especially when you consider that Arsenal tend to be the only big team that get burnt like this.
Pivotal Arsenal keep their top players
Although the other top six clubs have lost the odd player at the end of their deal like Manchester City losing James Milner to Liverpool, you never hear about their elite players like Eden Hazard, Sergio Aguero etc. on their way out on the cheap because their contract was allowed to run down.
In fact it’s usually the opposite as most players seem to be sat down for a new deal whenever there’s the slight hint of exit talk.
Although social media collectively giggles whenever Tottenham wheel at their signature Mauricio Pochettino hand on the shoulder cardboard cut out whenever Spurs re-sign one of their players, it only shows that they do have their fingers on the pulse.
Every couple weeks it seems Arsenal’s biggest rivals have re-signed one of their top stars which can only boost the morale of the team and can only be more inclination for their other top players to continue at the club.
Let’s say you’re a first team player at Tottenham unsure about whether you want to sign a new deal or look elsewhere, if you see your star striker, your best creative midfielder and one of the best centre backs in the league all sign new contracts, there’s only more reason for you to stop in because all the top players clearly believe in the project that’s building at White Hart Lane.
If you’re in the same boat at Arsenal and only see more and more reports saying that Alexis Sánchez and Mesut Özil are unsure about their futures and that their contracts talks are only being pushed further and further back, you’ll presumably be a lot more disenfranchised.
Of course, contracts can mean little, the likes of Luis Suárez signed a new Liverpool contract just months before his £65m transfer to FC Barcelona but it does give you that edge in the market.
Although the PFA Player of the Year and FWA Footballer of the Year in 2014, you question whether Liverpool would have made all of that £40m+ profit that summer especially coming off a third biting incident and lengthy ban, if Suarez hadn’t signed a new contract and his Liverpool one was winding down.
That edge in the market is the most important thing because although it could be time for the likes of Ramsey, Wilshere and Gibbs to be moved along, the odds of getting the valuations Arsenal would like of the trio and very much against them.
No longer are they just competing with the elite European clubs to retain their top players either because now every Premier League club is rich, never mind the riches of China.
Let’s say a club in the position of a Stoke City or Southampton (with all due respects to those clubs) come in for Ramsey or Wilshere, there’s a much greater chance they can match their contract desires than there was five years ago and with the potential to build a club around them and challenge for Europe as those clubs have tried to, suddenly staying at Arsenal isn’t the be all and end all of those players careers.
Five years ago, it was the done thing to stay at the Emirates because Arsenal were in Europe and if the other elite European clubs weren’t in for you at home or abroad, then the domestic clubs below Arsenal probably couldn’t afford you but with the Premier League rights money through the roof, there’s no stopping these clubs now.
It all begs the question how a club built to compete with the best in Europe is still so terrible at retaining its best assets?