Arsenal: Only one person to blame for Arsene Wenger’s January fears

Arsene Wenger has expressed fears that his Arsenal players will be tapped up ahead of a possible January move. Unfortunately for him, he only has one person to blame: himself.

Arsenal have several players currently playing in the final year of their respective contracts. It is, naturally, a precarious situation with little certainty regarding the long-term makeup of the squad, especially considering the calibre of player that could leave next summer for free.

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The most famous examples are Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez, of which enough has been written. But there are more who also face the same ambiguity this year. Jack Wilshere, Santi Cazorla and Joel Campbell (even though he is spending the year on loan at Real Betis) are other examples, and given the lack of clarity that soon-to-be-expiring contracts cause, it is very difficult for Arsene Wenger to make and implement substantial plans.

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Another concern of Wenger’s is the potential for ‘tapping up’ of his players ahead of a prospective January move. Given that the winter transfer window will be the last chance that Arsenal get to receive any sort of fee for many of these players and that it offers potential buyers the opportunity to skip the queue, beat the competition that will inevitably exist in the summer and secure the signing six months earlier, Wenger expressed fears, in an interview with BEIN Sports, that some of his players could have their heads turned:

"“What’s happening is the players know the transfer window is closed. September will be OK. The players who do not play or the players who are tapped up in October they already start again to think, “Where do I go in January?” That’s not the way to be on board with the football club. And I believe we have to realise that.”"

Such trepidations are justified. Many of the players that could be available to buy will attract significant interest from across the continent. But, unfortunately for Wenger, there is only one man to blame for thrusting the club into such depths of uncertainty. Himself.

The complacency that has seeped into the management of players’ contracts stems from Wenger’s belief, one that he publicly revealed in the summer, that shorter contracts provide a better motivation for players to perform at their best. While that may be true, it creates another problem that does not have to exist: the long-term future of the player, and subsequently the club, is unclear.

And that breeds the sticky situation that Arsenal now find themselves in. More than just the players whose deals expire next summer, there is a whole raft — Olivier Giroud, Theo Walcott, Aaron Ramsey to name but a few — who will be free to leave in the 2019 summer, meaning that next offseason, the same long-running sagas of Sanchez, Ozil, Oxlade-Chamberlain and others will only play out again.

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Arsenal are in a contract crisis. That is the root cause of Wenger’s tapping-up fears. While he may protest his issues with the system, later declaring that there should be no transfer window after the season has started, the system has not changed since his hiring. He knows the ins and outs of football better than most. And yet, he still falls foul to simple management tasks.