Former Arsenal man, Sol Campbell says the only way to stop losing key players is by offering them contract extensions quicker.
Arsenal has been losing some of their top players to other clubs or the free agency market when they run down their deals.
The Gunners are not the only club suffering from losing important players because their current deals would soon run out.
But it is a trend that must stop, especially now that Mikel Arteta is rebuilding the team with some exciting youngsters.
The likes of Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe are players who should spend the rest of their careers at the club if they continue to perform well.
However, we could lose them to a rival if we hesitate to hand them new deals, and Campbell believes that shouldn’t be allowed to happen for any reason.
He tells TalkSport: “You can’t allow top, top players to run their contracts down and move on because you’re taking too long.
“It’s happened before but that was all about big, big money, it took a long time to secure their contracts – why?
“When a club takes so long to secure the future of a player, if you wait too long, they’re going to get offers from other teams around.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
Getting our players on new deals should become a matter of priority to us now.
Arsenal has had far too many transfer and contract sagas down the years and they must avoid putting themselves in situations like that going forward.
When the likes of Saka have three more years on their current deal, we should start contract talks.
This sounds desperate, but sometimes you need to be desperate to keep your players for the long term.
That’s one way, another is to match their ambition.
Fight for titles and trophies, show them that and you don’t have to worry about losing your best players all the time.