Now we know who the manager will be next season, Arsenal can now start resuming contract talks with the players that are nearing the end of their courrent deals, and it would appear to be that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is going to be the first to be called to Arsene Wenger’s office.
The 23 year-old has been linked with a move to Liverpool for quite some time, and if the Ox really wanted to force a move away he would just simply have to refuse to put pen to paper. According to the Express, Arsenal are prepared to offer the young Englishman £100,000 a week to re-sign (and to persuade him to reject other suitors) but is that a fair price for a player that usually starts around 10-15 games a season?
You could say that the Ox will now be a definite starter in Wenger’s new formation, although even during that run Chamberlain had quite a few weeks out with injury….
But as we now are a ‘rich club’, I guess we should be able to afford to pay top wages to our players, but the worry is that every other player on the books will want to earn that as a minimum from now on. Personally I just want to get these talks over with so we can move on to bigger things. We need to know a soon as possible whether Alexis and Ozil are staying or not….