With Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger publicly revealing the club are in contract talks with Theo Walcott, despite the long-serving player’s having another 18 months to run on his deal, why wasn’t the Gunners boss so eager to renew the deals of his former stars – most notably, Robin Van Persie, Thomas Vermaelen and Bacary Sagna?
The Gunners boss has previously let the contracts of many important players run down to the last 12 months, which caused friction between both parties leading to an exit, as the players in question were coveted by big clubs offering long-term deals by comparison. Arsenal’s stalling of contract talks made up a lot of players’ minds in the past.
Wenger was forced to cash in on Robin Van Persie at the start of the 2012/13 season, as the Dutchman’s deal was up the following summer. Even last campaign, Thomas Vermaelen and Bacary Sagna both refused to sign new deals with the club and left to Barcelona (£10M) and Manchester City (free) respectively, as their contracts were up at the end of the campaign.
So when will the Arsenal manager learn to do his deals early? By letting contracts run down, Wenger risks losing more and more players in the same fashion as he has done in the past. It was certainly strange that the Londoners have been so keep to pin down Theo Walcott’s future too, considering the England international has only just returned after an 11-month injury layout.
Walcott has never uttered any displeasure with the club, and in fact was recently full of raise for Arsenal for all the hard work from the club’s medical staff that has gone into making his return to action this year. The 25-year-old has been with the Londoners for eight years after signing from Southampton. In the Premier League, the only clubs arguably better for a career move than Arsenal would be Manchester City and Chelsea, and neither side are interested in his services, so is there any risk he’d leave?
There’s little chance of Walcott moving abroad either, and not just due to his recent recovering from an anterior cruciate ligament injury. The Arsenal forward has only recently become a father, so he would be very reticent to move his family away.
Are the supporters in their right to be angry at the club for inconsistency regarding contract talks for players?
