All these Arsenal players are near end of contracts – Sell or extend?

We all know the effect that the contract situation has had on David Luiz, whose contract finishes in just ten days time on June 30th. It seems very unlikely that he will given the one year extra option now that we know Arsenal are signing Pablo Mari, as well as getting William Saliba back from his loan at St Etienne.

But we also have six other players who will enter the last six months of their contracts on June 30th as well, and if Arsenal are going to keep their promise that no-one will be allowed to run down their contract any more, then we need action on all of them.

Obviously the highest profile player on that list is Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and although it is still unclear if he will extend, I think he will be making a high profile move away which will help fund our summer dealings.

The second most important, to me at least, is the current standoff with Bukayo Saka, and I will be very disappointed if he doesn’t extend his contract after being nurtured through our academy.

Mesut Ozil is a hard one, but as he keeps saying he will finish his contract (I would!), I think we are stuck with him.

In the same position is Shkodran Mustafi. He may be a little improved under Arteta but I doubt he will be an automatic starter next season, but how can Arsenal find a buyer willing to pay his wages even if we give him away?

Next we have our ageing Greek Sokratis, who doesn’t play much since Arteta arrived, but again, I can see him running down his contract on the bench. He will certainly be useful in cup games…

Lastly, we have Matt Macey our third choice keeper. The 25 year-old has only played once (in the League Cup) for Arsenal in his five years at the club, but his very good loan at Plymouth last season may mean he will find a club in the lower leagues to give him a contract.

Who do you think we will realistically be able to sell or extend?

20 Comments

  1. We need to either build team to compete for titles, with few additions required.

    Or sell most players and buy young players with experience to build around that and progress as they do each year.

    Has to be a choice made in term of strategy.

    We must first get rid of Arteta who is not at all ready to take a club as Arsenal yet,has no first coach experience, developing at Arsenal instead than elsewhere.

    He great assistant tho, not a coach yet

    1. You make interesting points Mogunna but none of the big wig managers wanted the job without a higher level of investment from the bosses.
      In all seriousness who do you think Arsenal should have brought in?

  2. In other words, if we don’t go for Koulibaly, Partey likes, a top coach as Allegri shows no ambition to win titles.

    Auba Laca should go try do so elsewhere then.

    To keep Saka, must show him we going for a young team to build up from. Bring Nagelsman or Favre who are perfect coaches for such a youth strategy, and both playing a great football. Then Saka should stay!

    , Can’t blame players for mess in this club!

    1. Nagelsman is a top coach for sure. So is Favre. What makes you think either will come to our shower of shit? You made a very valid point above though regarding Arteta. He should never have been given the job to start with perhaps. Look at Spurs. They fired Poch but brought in a coach with experience. We go from a shit coach to an inexperienced coach. To answer SueP above, maybe we should give the job to Poch! We are quickly turning into our mid 70’s- mid 80’s version. Mid-table fodder with the occasional relegation scare. We are at a critical stage of our history. If the club does not make the right calls, I fear the worst.

  3. It is really dawning on me now that Arsenal are in a pickle. I’m not going to knock Arteta who is having to rebuild the team with little or no money to spend and with far too many players who are not of the quality required & on salaries that don’t reflect their abilities.

    I will have to accept the new normal at Arsenal for some time to come if those surplus players choose to sit on those contracts and not move on.

    I’m not getting any impression of what is going on behind the scenes but if Marí is the level we can take on then I don’t hold out much hope of a stellar signing or two even if we can get rid of the dead wood

    Perhaps we will have more of an idea after today’s game of what is going on as Wednesday’s game was not a proper reflection

      1. Just Thomas Partey would make a huge difference. But why should this guy (this great player) take on him the impossible mission to make Emirates fly? I’ve heard that he’s a man more mature than most footballers, who even support a team of “his own” in Spain with salary money. Maybe he’s an idealist. If so, Good, that’s what we need. Men who knows what they are doing, and why. Mentally strong grown up men. And – good football players.

    1. Sue, most people are of the opinion our defence and defending midfield are the weak areas. Signing the calibre of Mari is just going to be the continuation of the last 10 years, not addressing the glaring weakness with quality enforcements. We are a dead dodo club, thats it for AFC as force.

    1. The question remains, do they want to stay? You cant keep players against their will remember.

    2. The real concern is what has Saka accomplished in his career to warrant his attitude? Most young academy players will be happy to secure a contract with their club. A couple of good performances and he thinks he is Messi or CR7? I say sell to the highest bidder. If he has no pride for the jersey, then pxxx off!

  4. As I said in d post on Saka contract, AUBA and his agent should come out straight, demand a detail explanation on the ambition of the board and roadmaps to getting back to where we belong. If he isn’t satisfied with the board, he doesn’t need to stay and drown his career, time is not on his side anymore, as for others on the list, I expect Saka to renew, while the rest may leave

    1. Saka it’s the other Primo Donna’s we have to DUMP let’s get Arsenal back at the moment we are Mid table

    2. In all fairness you make a valid assessment. Arteta is not any better than Unai Emry. We seem to have no identity or strategy to win games with arteta. We cant blame the players always. Smaller teams cant be having better players than arsenal always. Arteta is not the best for arsenal.

  5. I don’t really know what to say about this for now,the problem is that we are not strong enough to play

  6. It’s time to clean house.

    I do everything in my power to keep Saka. I build the attack group around Saka, Nketiah, Martinelli, John-Jules, Bollarin (sp), Smith-Rowe, and, for now, Pepe and Reiss-Nelson.

    I sell Mustafi, Sokratis, Kolascinac, Mhkitarian, Guendouzi, Maitland-Niles and Lacazette to fund the purchase of Upamecano, Partey and a CAM.

    I make Ozil (and, if necessary Mustafi) an offer he can’t refuse: get sold to any team willing to take you or get assigned to Hale End and play with the seven year-olds. I would tell him that he won’t be given a first team kit or given entry into the London Colney grounds because he will not be playing for the club again. He can collect his paycheck and let his game rot playing with the kids at Hale End or he can move on and still get paid a decent amount by some other club. His choice.

    If Martinez insists on leaving, sell him. If there is an in-house option to replace him, like Macey, fine. Otherwise, sell Martinez and Macey and use those funds to buy a backup keeper.

    With Leno, Upamecano, Saliba, Mari, Holding and Chambers (when he comes back), you have the makings of a solid backline and keeper. Bellerin and Tierney are the first choice backs. Osei-Tutu comes back from his loan to back up Bellerin. If he isn’t too expensive and the doctors say that he is healthy, Cedric can back up Tierney. If not on either count, I buy a left back who isn’t too expensive to back up Tierney.

    I keep Xhaka, because I can’t sell him for much now, and Torrierra. I also keep Willock, for the time being. Beyond this, the midfield has to be strengthened. Partey is only part of the answer. A CAM who is physically strong and creative is a necessity, even if Willock finally grows into his “man- body”. I would also consider buying another CAM and trying Saka and Smith-Rowe in the middle of the park to have some depth to call upon.

    That leaves Aubamayang. I tell him what we’re going to do and make him a fair offer for an extension. I also make it clear that I want him to stay. If he accepts, fine. He is the captain, star and focal point of the offense. If not, I sell him, buy a younger, cheaper veteran striker and use whatever is left over to buy a better CAM, or perhaps two.

    That leaves a pretty young squad built around a small core of young, quality veterans that can grow together. It gets rid of the deadwood, defeatist attitudes and many of the high salaries that have been clogging up the arteries at the club for far too long. This group might take it’s lumps against the big five (the current club hasn’t done much against them either), but they will win their share in the PL with their speed, youth and exuberance. They may lack experience, but not quality. And they will have some veteran leadership.

    I actually think that, because he is so detail oriented, Arteta might be the right person to coach this group at this stage. It might take a more tactically sophisticated coach to get them to the next level in a couple of years, but the younger players need a coach like Arteta now, I think.

    If Arsenal is going to get back to its winning ways, it has to clear out the deadwood and find out what it has in the young players that it has been stockpiling. Now is as good a time to do that as any.

  7. He is right how many times do we have to say get rid of the deadwood what is a matter with our board

  8. There will be less money coming in until the world no longer considers covid a problem, so any contract extensions will probably be on lower wages. All the better for the game imo.

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