There has been much talk of all the Arsenal players whose contracts are up in 18 months time, including Ozil and Alexis of course. Other’s include Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Kieran Gibbs, Mathieu Debuchy and Olivier Giroud. And as Wenger revealed, both Per Mertesacker and Santi Cazorla are set to be given a one-year extension as well.
AS is the case with Mesut Ozil, I was thinking that they were all waiting to see if Wenger was going to stay beyond this summer or to find out who the new manager is going to be, but it looks like I was wrong….
Oli Giroud has revealed that he is close to being the first one to extend, as he said on ESPN: “We’re on the verge of reaching an agreement,”
“It’s a sign of trust. I want to continue the adventure in this Arsenal family. I feel good here.”
“When I spoke to the coach, he always told me that I was an important player,”
“I know what I am capable of. I just needed to be patient, to work in training and wait for my hour to come.”
I think that us Arsenal fans are now warming up to Giroud now that he is not our main striker, and he seems to contribute with goals every time he comes on the pitch. He is certainly a great tool to use in the squad when Plan A isn’t working.
I really hope that Arsene Wenger is using this little break to continue his contract discussions with all our other stars. If Arsenal can persuade one of either Ozil or Sanchez to sign very soon it will be a great boost going into the second half of the season. I personally think Gibbs should also be signed for another few years, and Oxlade-Chamberlain is also beginning to show his potential and should be extended.
Get working Wenger and get them all signed up!
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Strange turnaround everyone all of a sudden bigging up Giroud and Gibbs, Gibbs esp. A time back I remember being ripped apart in here for saying Gibbs is a decent squad player. I always felt our bad defending was more of a collective thing, rather than individual or solely the rearguard. Giroud is nearing the end of his contract, it might be an idea to let him reach the end of it before offering another one. See how he looks in eighteen months time, also he’ll be playing for his contract so there’ll be no comfort zone.
Finally, Zelalem is 19 and Toral is 21. Fabregas and Wilshere got their chance at an earlier age. We’ve been told that we have very special youngsters in our academy, this time was supposed to be different, they were supposed to be really gifted. Zelalem in particular. If Toral isn’t in our thinking right now well then he must not be Arsenal quality. With Cazorla out you’d expect Wenger to take a long look at Zelalem.
Gibbs is fine, nothing special, let’s be honest. I don’t think he has high wages either so keeping him as just a squad player is fine with me. At this point he’s not going to break into starting XI though. Giroud is another player that is starting to age, but he has never relied on pace, and still has something to contribute to the team. We won’t win a major title with him as our main striker still. Sanchez and Ozil should still be priorities, but Gibbs and Giroud getting extensions in the meantime I have no problem with. If Ox gets a new deal I’ll be upset though. Honestly, he’s just another Walcott, our winger options are pretty poor, and selling Ox to get someone better would make a lot of sense. He’s just not good enough for Arsenal, time to stop fooling ourselves. And apparently this guy wants big wages too, ridiculous when he can’t score more than 2 league goals a season. Arsenal need to do some clearing out in the summer and need to get better starting XI players.
Zelalem wants to leave. If we don’t sell him now he goes for free in the summer. Obviously not good enough for Arsenal anyway!
@G-Rude
Dude is too light weight and timid for the EPL…
Agree. Apparently he hasn’t excelled like predicted either. The fact he hasn’t bulked up at all doesn’t help either. He’ll do better at BVB I feel anyways, and there are a lot of German-American’s there too.
Uh well Zelalem is moving to Dortmund so he must be pretty good after all.
Looks like Zelalem is headed for BVB on a permanent deal…
The lethal striker at the moment in the EPL could leave and the lamp post becomes the first to sign contract.. we let the most profilic player leave coz he wants to win trophies and he is ambitious.. shows what kind of a team and management Arsenal is.. may be we’ll win the UCLwith OG as our main striker, Sanchez can go
We bought him in the first place. If him leaving shows a lack of ambition, does us signing him not show intent. And what if he stays on.
haven’t you heard? that players that want to win trophies are sold at Arsenal? Players that are always OK with the FA cup and 4th trophy are signing new contracts everyday, those that wants to win major trophies see that those silverware can not be won with such players, OG as main striker.. he has been our main striker for so long and how many EPL titles have we won?
signing him shows intent yes, but what about keeping him? why do we always sell players that go out and win trophies in other teams but can’t win it at Arsenal? Is Arsenal a stepping stone????
I do not see ozil or sanchez leaving while we still in champions league, so therefore i would not pay these rumours of leaving january any mind, however i would like these discussion of contracts come to an end because it has not been benefiting the team in no way.
For him .to make a statement of basically saying he will not sign unless the coach does only serves to establish what Henry said has true, he is holding the club at ransom, which i think contributes with the club negative vibes at the moment.
I am not a fan of Ozil and will say so without no apology, i think arsenal can find far better options in the transfer market, which actually will help the spirit of the club