Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger believes that clubs are struggling to match top stars’ wage demands, and it’s leading to more players leaving on free transfers at the end of their contracts.
20% of Premier League players are currently within their last 12 months of their current deals; an unprecedented number Wenger says. Two of those number are key Gunners players Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez, and although he didn’t mention them by name to Arsenal Magazine (quotes via the Sun), it seems likely that the Arsenal manager includes them in his general argument about player contracts:
“There’s a big inflation that means most of the clubs have two situations with players who go to the end of the contract. There are players who do not want to renew and players who expect higher wages so don’t want to sign the contract because they expect huge wages due to the inflation. So that results in more and more players going to the end of their contracts.”
Ozil is said to be holding out for £350,000 a week while Arsenal have offered £275,000 a week to the German international. It is likely that such wage demands are being determined by the Chinese Super League, who have offered incredibly high salaries to European based players in recent times to tempt stars to make the switch to the Far East.
Both Sanchez and Ozil however have been most heavily linked with Premier League teams, with the Chilean having been subject to a summer bid from Manchester City, while Ozil said to be interesting Manchester United.
