UK Edition
Uncertainty over Arsene Wenger's future at Arsenal 'will not sway Mesut Ozil or Alexis Sanchez'
Arsene Wenger has suggested that a decision on his own future as Arsenal manager will be made before the end of the season but is adamant that this uncertainty will not affect contract negotiations with Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez.
Ozil and Sanchez will enter the final year of their contracts next summer and are yet to reach agreement over the terms of possible extensions. Wenger’s own deal expires at the end of this season but, having previously said that he would wait until that point before making a decision, he said yesterday that judgements will be made “in spring”.
He then mentioned previous negotiations that lasted until March or April and, with Arsenal’s season running potentially until the end of May or early June, is confident that the club is comfortable with this timescale. The sense from both Wenger and Arsenal is that both sides would like the relationship to continue but they are also sensitive to the volatile mood of supporters.
The Ozil and Sanchez negotiations may well also inform the decision of a manager who believes that this current squad can now challenge again to win both the Premier League and Champions league. A nine-point gap has suddenly opened to Chelsea and Wenger remains likely to leave either if he feels that he has under-performed.
Asked if negative fans would impact on his decision, Wenger said: “No. I always said that I will judge where I stand in spring and make my decisions then. The club is free as well. It’s not because I am here a long time that I have any rights. We are both on the same boat.”
Wenger confirmed that the club was “happy” to wait and he has pledged to continue making decisions that attempt to balance both the short and long-term needs of developing the squad. “There are plenty of managers who arrived at the end of their contract,” he said. “It happened to me before. I signed sometimes in March, April for longer contracts. I don’t think it’s a problem.
“I worked everywhere I was until the last day of my contract with total commitment. That’s why maybe I can go back everywhere I was, because people respect that.”
Away defeats against Everton and Manchester City, however, have put Arsenal on the back foot and Wenger was forced yesterday to defend what he believes is the deceptively high work-rate of record signing Ozil. Specifically, it was highlighted that Ozil is second in the entire Premier League in statistics for winning back the ball in the final third of the pitch.
“I don’t give him any leeway when the team doesn’t have possession,” said Wenger. “He is a guy who works much harder than people think and his body language goes a bit against him sometimes. He has to do his job like everybody else and usually he does it well. His main strength is of course when we have the ball and he suffers more when we don’t have it.
“We are a team who win the ball back high up the pitch very well, which means he and Alexis do their part of the job very well. We had a deficit in winning the ball back in the middle of the pitch against Manchester City. Mesut Ozil is an important player, a big player, and the big players always respond to criticism on the pitch.”
Danny Welbeck joined full training yesterday for the first time this season following surgery on his knee cartilage but will not be in contention to play until the New Year. Shkodran Mustafi and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will also miss the Boxing Day game against West Bromwich Albion but Aaron Ramsey is likely to return to the squad.
Wenger yesterday described Ramsey as like “a new signing” and said that Welbeck will feel like he is “starting a new career”. Arsenal’s squad should also be further strengthened next month by the availability again of Per Mertesacker.
“We have suffered a little bit physically in the last two games,” said Wenger. “We had given a lot in Europe, in the Premier League. We were a bit less fresh mentally to absorb the pressure of two big away games having just come back from Europe.”
And how will Wenger spend Christmas Day? “We will practise,” he said. “At night we go to the hotel to prepare for the 26th. Like every manager, I suffer when we don’t win a game. In your mind you always have your next game.”