Arsenal to stop players running down contracts

It has long been well publicsed that Arsenal are too quick to allow players to run down their contracts at the club, which ends up forcing the clubs hand in wage disputes in order to keep their top stars from moving elsewhere. 

However in recent months, under the stewardship of strict manager Unai Emery and new director of football Raúl Sanllehí, the club are in no mood to allow players to dictate contract negotiations any longer. 

Director of football Sanllehí has firmly asserted his belief that the club are in control from here on out, saying: "I do believe that a player’s contract should never go to the last year, as a policy. But I don’t think I am inventing the wheel. Anybody could agree on that. Normally the contracts of the players are for five years. You need to have a clear idea of what you want to do with that player when he is in the third year, at the latest.”

However due to this new firm stance, experienced players such as Aaron Ramsey, Danny Welbeck and Petr Cech could all move to pastures new free of charge, when their contracts expire in June.  This could prove to be of great detriment to the 'Gunners' as the players are drawing considerable interest from their Premier League rivals.

In particular, the negotiations with Ramsey have been drawn out and complicated, with Arsenal finally withdrawing their contract offer to the player, as they were unwilling to increase their wage allocation for the Welshman. 

Yet the director of football is unperturbed, asserting that the club is well aware of the decisions that it is taking: "“I would like to say that all the decisions that we take, in general on the club and specifically on the first-team squad, they are always the consequence of a thorough debate in which we analyse the pros and cons of every decision."

Sanllehí concluded: "“At the end there is one criterion: is this good or bad for the club? Is this going to make us stronger or not? We don’t take decisions overnight, on a quick reflection. A lot of people are involved. People in which we have a high trust. When we reach a decision, it’s for a reason.”