The Arsenal legend Thierry Henry is very clear when it comes to talking about the contract situations of Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez, and he considers it unthinkable that the Gunners didn’t cash in on them to free up funds to buy replacements that actually want to play for Arsenal.
Henry understands that losing them could be bad for the team but he thinks it makes no sense whatsoever to let them leave Arsenal for nothing at the end of the season. “We are talking about something they created themselves,” He told Sky Sports.
“You are going to miss Alexis Sanchez if he leaves and you are going to miss Mesut Ozil, because they are quality players. Now, are you not going to get any money for them either?
“If something is coming now, you have to at least get some money, because you are going to lose them anyway at the end.
“They haven’t signed new contracts yet, that is something we are sure about, so you are not going to get money for them if they leave at the end of the season. So it’s a double punishment.
“It’s astonishing to me. How? [Robin] van Persie went, I went. A lot of players went, but you got money for them.
“These guys might go on a free. So are you going to keep them and hope you can make them stay or are you going to sell them?”
I personally agree and think Wenger should have sold them both in the summer when we could have got a bundle of money, no matter where they went. Money that could have been reinvested. We may not get so much in January but do you think Henry is right and we should get rid of them anyway?
Admin
Stupid decision was made in the summer to let them go on a free, so Wenger, and the board need to see it through, as it’s even more of a stupid decision to sell in January!
We won’t get much for them with only six months left on their contracts anyway, and they’re both coming into form of late, so it’ll really weaken us if they went. No one within the squad can replace them, and very difficult, and expensive to sign quality in January. The league is gone, but we’re in the Carabao Cup semis, we’re one of the favourites for the Europe League, we’re always the favourite for the FA Cup, and only six points off second at the time of writing this, so there’s still a lot to play for. So we MUST keep our best players. As I keep saying, an out-of-form Sanchez is still better than an in-form Walcott, Iwobi, Welbeck, etc. Similar with Ozil.
As I said the other day, the ONLY viable option if they do go, is to get a quality player in return as part of a swap deal.
Which manager and player is ever going to offer one of their top players for someone with at best a very few months to go before they are a free agent? Others have also suggested this on here. Not thinking too clearly say I! Of course we SHOULD have moved them on last summer but thanks to “out of touch with reality Wenger” we are where we are. Up the creek without the proverbial paddle. Thanks for nothing, Prof. Potty!
teams pay more in january if there is competition for the player, for city to get sanchez free is a disgrace! the team w all the money on the globe gets our best player free? also wins the trophy and maybe wins UCL, talk about getting freaking embarrassed. sell him to paris, create competition for the player, get him the hell out of the EPL,
Are you kidding Mr Admin? Is Thierry – the realist – right and Wenger wrong? Is the Pope a Catholic! At least in this obviously rhetorical question, I note with relief for your personal sanity, that you personally agree with Henry. As I like to be helpful, may I offer you this headline for your future article: “Does anyone now aged twenty remember the last time Wenger was in touch with reality?” He or she would have had to be a very astute and forward ten year old (or younger)!
You are welcome to write that one Jon….
Mr . Admin , I would gladly write regularly and you know I can use persuasive woirds to make my point. But as you also surely know, I am never bland in my comments and use to the point language. I will not swear, obviously, but I am unable to write an honest anti -Wenger artyicle without forceful and real language, castigating his tenuous grip on reality. That being said, if you want me to write it , I am only too keen. For further context, in my long life I have many times been asked to chair this or committee and have always refused, because i admit and know better than most that I will polarise opinion. As a Chairman that is not helpful. But as a fan, I have much to say, IF I am allowed and that is now up to you.
Write one man, and then you can darken some words, and use “frak” a lot, like in Battlestar Galactica 🙂
You are welcome to write, but as Mr Admin I am allowed to edit out and overly aggressive comments that are over the top. Agreed?
Yes , for certain I agree and I would expect no less from any proper admin who is properly doing the job. And my thanks to you. I am quite willing to write on a variety of Arsenal topics, when I can use my many decades experience of watching Arsenal home and away to bring insights and anecdotes to younger fans. Which is most people on here, sadly for me and my poor knees. I will of course strive to be as respectful as possible, though I freely admit I do like to write as I think and above all to be truthful and real.
Do it Jon, educate the young.
Hahahaha
Read your articles Jon and most of them I agree with but one thing I’d to take issue with is don’t underestimate ten year olds. I was ten when watching the great Tottenham side of 1960-61 and new without doubt they were the best team I’d ever seen, (apart from the great Real Madrid of 1960} the way they slid the ball around keeping on the floor and didn’t need a grown up to tell me, They were skating the league that year like Manchester City are now and I can still remember sitting on the corner of a crash barrier at the back of the North Bank (It’s the only way I could see) when they beat 3-2 at Highbury on a hot September day. Tottenham should have won the 62′ European cup, losing to Benfica in the semis 4-3 on aggregate after absolutely killing them at White Hart Lane. I was there because as you know, mates used to go to Arsenal one week and Tottenham the next week, at a cost three bob (shillings, 30 pence in today’s money} you had enough to get in and your bus fare. Don’t worry, I always supported the other side because these were the days of no Hooliganism, did not exist, the Derby’s would have 30000 of both clubs in the ground and never a hint of any trouble, those were the days hey Jon
Umm three bob is 15p in new money Kenny!
You’re right GoonerP, except my apologies
Henry is right even when he’s wrong
OT question.
Is mo salah best impact signing in pl history
I am sick and tired of reading comments from fickle fans
1. The present board are business people and for that alone they have the best person in charge of there assets which is AW
2.why would AW step down when he is paid mega amounts and has a remit set out by the board that is probably based more on financial rather then football
3. I am not privy to what AW thinks but i cant see him not wanting ro win but his remit is different and i just cant see the people above him having the same ambition , so you fall in to the trap of just doing enough which may i say is not good enough
4. The whole reason why we cut our self loose from Highbury and move to a bigger stadium was to be able to compete with the best. Everyone bought in to it. Lead by AW and DD and the board.
Well david dein is no longer there and the old board sold us out to the new people and took the money and ran.
We should have been up in arms at the old brigade for being money hungry. But we aim our frustration at the new brigade which is pointless. They wont change
Stan doesnt seem to have the ambition to win big but he isnt here to win big. He is here to make money which he is doing in plenty.
AW should step down but he wont si we have to ride it out until he does
We have quality team with a few missing pieces.(forget MO AND AS) anyone who doesnt sign up to the cause then sell them l. Stop trying to pamper to there needs and building a team around them.
All we need is to have a strong willed manager who can organise, get us disciplined and win at all cost
Many excellent points for sure. I find though , a distinct contradiction between your first and last sentences , which say different and incompatable things. I have to presume your being fed up with “fickle fans” comments refers to those who want Wenger out and hate what he is doing and has done , for years past to our club. You will correct me no doubt if I am wrong. Your final sentence, correctly , calls for a strong willed manager who can organise and get us disciplined and win at all costs. But the vast majority of us know this is the very opposite of what Wenger does and that he has more than amply proved his long term inability and even lack of desire to do exactly what you state. Care to clarify please? You also believe there is nothing WE fans can do to get rid of Wenger until he wants to leave. I for one totally reject that view and many agree with me that we fans must be pro-active in actively and constantly calling for his dismissal. i suggest to you that you vastly underestimate the power of fans who are united in purpose and steely determined to win our battle to remove this incompetant and arrogant man.
I will never underestimate the fans but the fans of today are a different breed of yesteryear
A few wins to mask over the cracks and Hense fickle
I was a true believer of AW. I can still remember the days when we won the league with George. Sold all the best players. Became a fallen giant in such a short time and was going no where fast
AW has had his time but when he was at his best he had people of the pitch unquestioning him (david dein and co) and players on the pitch who could stand up and question his methods.
He is still our manager and of the greatest club in the world in my eyes. No matter how frustrating they make me and tge feeling of being mugged when they dont turn up for the game ..Old saying…you can change your car. House and even wife but never your team tgat have grown up with.
So until they change him (which only the idiots running the asylum can do) i will support him and the team until the king dead and all hale the new king
Supporting the team and having blind support of a manager are two very different things. Especially when that manager is part of a big problem within the club.
thierry is absolutely correvt, been saying this, this situation has no way to end good, none. if a player is already committed in his head to be w another team, he will be a drag on the rest of the squad, and he is. best to sell in january, hopefully to paris, even for 10- 20M, keep him from city, and move on. you may keep ozil if you get rid of alexis in january, otherwise this squad will crash & burn. there is only one spot left for UCL, and pool, spuds and us are fighting for it. I do not like our chances given this off the pitch bullcrap, alexis would laugh next year at city, watching afc play thursdays, as we have seen, he is a spiteful man. look at the difference ozil is behaving. shame on you wenger, this was the most stupid management of a situation i have ever seen. now, instead of alexis to blame, you are to blame,
Last summer I felt the dinosaur should have sold Ozil and Sanchez for two reasons. The first being the loss of £150 mil from our squad next year and secondly it was obvious that keeping unhappy players would cause disharmony within the group this year.
However the dinosaur made his decision and now we must live with it. At the end of the season we will judge whether he was right or wrong and that clearly means different things to different people.
For me the dinosaur has already failed as the very minimum is to at least compete, which we are not. For the AKB’s every season wherethe dinosaur keeps being employed is a good season no matter what happens with the team.
true,
Why are you so insulting to dinosaurs , since you keep comparing them to Wenger! They had at least a tiny brain. But still a brain. Whereas…….!
Jon as much i respect you, i would love to see you leading a warm up, a little one, to see what kind of brain you have
Lol Jon
I have a feeling that Ozil will sign a new contract with Arsenal.
or he will wait for World Cup and then go where he wants.
Wenger will stay with Ramsey as no. 10 and a new captain. Wilsher will go also if that happens, I would go…
I only blame rvp for going to the fraking ManUtd, but everything he have said in his final letter to fans was right and true.
…Ozil case will be a turning point. If he leaves we will fall more.
I would like you to be right Maks but I have a feelig it is Ozil to Utd. Maureen would do it just to get one over Wenger.
I hope is just a media pushing where they know will hurt us.
Looool first of all Henry is a legend as a player NOT as a pundit or for his intelligence so the guys commentating here should stop worshipping him as if he were always right and secondly thats the problem fans are two-faced everybody makes it seem like the only correct decisiom would have been selling them but in summer the opinions werent even close to that.. almost 80% on here wanted to keep them even if they would be lost for free with the reasoning that the money wouldnt be sold anyway and that it would be a statement to the players that one cant just force the way out of arsenal, to show them that they have to honour their contracts.. but now all of you are changing your opinions just to be on the ‘I told you so’-side.. thats just shameful 😉
Krish, It is irrelevant to Arsenals success what we fans thought last summer, though I and many of us called for new blood and for all players who don’t want to play- really play, in bust a gut style- to be sold. What matters is that the highly paid Arsenal manager called it wrong. He has the advantage over fans in that he sees them every day and knows their character far better (in theory) than we fans ever can. We are not Prem managers and “have never managed even for 24 hours” and I presume you know who first reminded of that! That is why Wenger is hugely paid to organise , coach , buy , sell, man manage, play players in correct and sensible positions, in team shape, with recognition of the need to defend at times and to be mark tightly, not overplay or underplay them, to keep them motivated and fit. On all those matters Wenger has been a disastrous failure for many years now and should be sacked. Now KRISH, those things are what matters if we want success. And I warrant many of those “never managed for even 24 hours” fans would happily do the job and do it for free or very little money. And I suggest to you, most of them could not fail to do better than the present arrogant, smug, know all but really know nothing, old and deeply incompetant fool who is daily harming our club.
The idea of keeping them was to re-enter the champions league. The money received for playing champs league would be equal or perhaps exceed the money for the transfers.
It was a calculated risk to keep forgo the 100mil + they would receive for the transfers and roll the dice and try and make champs league, lose them on a free or hope for something to change at least one of their minds, and make up the money in Comp payouts, broadcasting and general worldwide marketing.
To just say we losing them for free is disingenuous. That being said if we miss out on top 4, it would be one of the most expensive mistakes Wenger will have ever made. Let’s be honest, it looks like that’s the way it will turn out!
Thierry is not a very good pundit, Gary is. Hope Ozil will stay. Alexis is a great player but at his current state of mind he better leaves in January. Winning “thee Trophy” this season (4th place) will be equally unexpected as FA Cup last season. How things are right now we will be lucky to enter Europa Cup again next season.
exactly! For me what henry has shown here again is just that his intelligence/insight isnt on par with his footballing level he looks at things too onesided.. even the case of celebrating with sanchez blabla henry just keeps talking nonsense and a lot of people on here keep worshipping him.. the matter of keepimg AS and MO has so many other compenents which henry will never be able to understand
@Krish Thierry’s knowledge of football is infinitely better than yours. As for insulting his intelligence just because he expressed an opinion that you disagree with that is not very bright of you! Free speech is allowed in this country.
It is fine to disagree with him but instead explain why you hold a different view rather than trying to shut down people with your abusive comments. Also it makes you seem really stupid yourself.
One of the many rules in football: the controverse opinions of pundit are NEVER right, they just leave out/arent able to understand many different reasons playing part in a decision, to form a valid opinion which could be agreed upon.. and from the already nonsense spouting pundits henry is one of the worst and the best is gary who still is one of the worst managers out there, so listening to pundits is just misleading
Far too simplistic and generalised comments. “Listening to pundits is just misleading” What , all of them, apart from Gary? Not much real thought has gone into your post. You might as well equally say”Listening to managers/ politicians/ teachers / doctors etc etc is wrong”. Surely it totally depends on WHICH ones. If you generalise people as you have done , by profession, it shows a lack of clear thought and too simplistic a principle. Wouldn’t you agree?
I would
All this speculation about, undoubtedly 2 of our best players, is tearing the club and supporters apart and this is due to the dictator we have as a manager who, in his mind alone, is always right. Arsenal legends can see what he is doing to the club it’s about time weegor packed his bags and f offed!!!!