Arsenal duo start contract talks

ARSENAL have opened talks with Aaron Ramsey and Danny Welbeck over new contracts. The Gunners pair are entering the final 18 months of their existing deals, but are set for lucrative extensions. Ramsey is currently on £110,000 a week but he may get more than £150,000 a week. Welbeck signed a £70,000-a-week deal in 2014 but his new contract will be worth over £100,000 a week. Recently appointed contracts executive Huss Fahmy will handle the negotiations for the club. Manager Arsene Wenger insists the talks are unrelated to the uncertainty this summer that surrounded the futures of Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Ozil and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, with the Englishman eventually joining Liverpool. ‘It’s not connected at all,’ he said. ‘With the amount of transfer levels and the expected amount of contracts the players want, you will have more and more players going into the final year of their contract. ‘You will be in a position where you either extend for money you cannot afford or you go into the final year of their contract. ‘This season there were 107 players in the Premier League who got into the final year of their contract for the first time. The clubs want too much for normal players, because they say if one player is worth £200million, then this player is worth £50m. ‘But everybody knows £50m is too much. So what happens? The club cannot sell and doesn’t extend the contract, so more players go into the final year of their contract.’