Ozil, Sanchez want bigger contracts
> Top Gunners ask for RM1.37m a-week because of Brexit vote
ARSENAL MAY have cost themselves more than £36m (RM190m) in failing to tie down Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez to new contracts last summer as the pair are now reported to be demanding £250,000(RM1.31m)-a-week to extend their stints at the Emirates Stadium, partly due to the Brexit vote.
Both Ozil and Sanchez are out of contract in 2018 and the club have already identified the pair as priority targets for new long-term contracts that will run until 2020.
With Santi Cazorla also nearing the end of his contract – which expires at the end of the season – Arsenal’s board have a fair bit of negotiating on the horizon, but they have been hit with a setback in talks with Ozil and Sanchez.
According to The Times, Arsenal will reopen contract talks once the pair return from the current international break, but their demands of £250,000-a-week stand at £70,000 (RM369m) more than what was discussed last year.
It is no secret that Ozil and Sanchez are Arsenal’s two most valuable players both on and off the field, with their form this season helping to lift the Gunners into Premier League title contention as they sit in third place, two points off leaders Manchester City.
The new wage demands may come as a shock for the Arsenal hierarchy, but as The Times goes on to explain, there are three crucial factors in play that is behind the hefty demands.
Two reasons could – and should – have been expected by Arsenal, with the time left on their deals reducing towards the feared one-year mark where the prospect of a free transfer begins to loom, and also the rate of inflation in wages across the Premier League due to the new television broadcast deal that came into effect at the start of the season.
The third reason though will not have been expected by the club, with June’s Brexit vote resulting in a large decline in the value of the pound. When talks originally began last October, the pound was valued at € 1.38, while its post-Brexit vote value has reduced to € 1.13.
The change in currency valuation could have serious ramifications for all Premier League clubs signing players from abroad, with those holding large assets and families abroad set to ask for higher wages.
Twenty seven year-old Ozil is already the clubs highest paid player among the Arsenal squad with his £140,000 (RM737,800)-a-week wages £10,000 (RM52,700) more than 27-yearold Sanchez’s.
The next in line is England international Theo Walcott on £120,000 (RM632,400)-aweek, but should Ozil and Sanchez secure their desired salaries, it will create a huge gulf in the club’s wage structure. – The Independent