Arsene Wenger: We’re working on multiple new deals

Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil’s contract situations have dominated most of the news surrounding Arsenal over the las few weeks, both players want significant pay rises to put them among the League’s highest earners. Wenger remains adamant, however, that neither player will be sold before their contracts run out. 

It’s not just Sanchez and Ozil who have under two years left on their current deals. Arsene Wenger has confirmed that the club are working on 6-7 new deals, as reported by Sky Sports. Kieran Gibbs, Mathieu Debuchy, Jack Wilshere, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Olivier Giroud all have a year-and-a-half left on their current deals, while Santi Cazorla and Per Mertesacker’s contracts run out in the summer. Wenger reiterated that is normal for Arsenal to have so many deals which are coming to an end. 

‘There are six or seven cases at the moment but that is the usual case, it is every year like that. That explains to you why we have a lot of work to do but you are only interested in two cases (Sanchez and Ozil).’

Wenger confirmed that Arsenal are in talks with Giroud, while that they will certainly extend Cazorla’s contract for another year. 

‘We work as well on Giroud. [We] will extend certainly with Santi Cazorla.’

‘Arsenal is a big club. It is not one or two players who will make the difference to the club. The importance is that we are today in a financial position that is strong, that was not the case before. What is important is always to take care of the values of the club, and the identity of the club, and not to depend too much on one or two players. The history of Arsenal is bigger than that.’