Arsene Wenger hasn’t been much of a crowd pleaser of late. The Frenchman might be a living legend at the Emirates Stadium, but that legend is now weighing heavy around his neck. Some fans even want that weight to drag him under, ending Wenger’s 21-year stint as Arsenal manager. His comments haven’t done much to quell the groundswell of negativity at the club.
Asked whether Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez, Arsenal’s two best players who will be out of contract at the end of the season, could be sold in January, Wenger answered in a resigned manner. “Once you are in our kind of situation we have envisaged every kind of solution, yes,” he said. It’s possible.
“That’s my understanding. I always said that the fact that we didn’t find an agreement last year doesn’t mean the player will necessarily leave. Both players look happy here and overall I hope that the situation can be turned around. At the moment, we are not close enough to announce anything.”
As soon as the words fell from Wenger’s mouth you could almost sense the outrage that was sure to come from sections of the Arsenal support. The same sections that have calling for the resignation of their manager for years. The same sections that protest the running of the club almost as much as they actually attend games.
But Wenger was right to make a show of strength over the Ozil and Sanchez contract situations. Some saw the Frenchman’s comments as a sense of weakness, all but admitting that the German and the Chilean won’t sign new contracts to stay in North London. But we already knew that. Wenger wasn’t giving anything away that wasn’t common knowledge.
Instead, Wenger sent a message to Ozil and Wenger that Arsenal won’t be held to ransom. Players, even players as good as this specific pair, are dispensable and can be replaced. For all that the situation is regrettable, it’s important that Wenger makes clear that nobody is bigger than the club.
What’s more, this season could be1 completely overshadowed by the saga surrounding Ozil and Sanchez. It’s already having that effect, with the Gunners enduring a mixed start to the 2017/18 campaign. Casting aside the pair might, in the short term, be beneficial, particularly with the two players struggling for form, perhaps even lacking motivation.
There are currently far bigger problems at Arsenal than the future of two players, even if those players are their only true world class talents. There’s a structural imbalance at the Emirates Stadium that threatens to cut the North London club adrift from their rivals at the top of the Premier League.
Wenger, of course, is a big part of that problem. His stubbornness has hindered Arsenal for the past decade, with the Frenchman repeating the same mistakes season after season. One of those mistakes is allowing the contracts of key players to run down into a final season. Ozil and Sanchez certainly aren’t the first players to leave Arsenal after a contract standout, with rivals like Manchester City and Manchester United making a habit of taking advantage.
But if Arsenal are to truly commit to the next two seasons under Wenger, they must allow the French control over this squad. His remarks this week concerning Ozil and Sanchez show that he won’t bow to player pressure, at least attempting to waft away the air of negativity that has become suffocating at Arsenal over the past few weeks and months. There are many things for Gooners to be upset at Wenger about, but this is not one of those things.
