Sagna Sounds Off

I think we should avoid all contract talk until the summer. Then when he wont accept our offer we sell him on, fail to replace him and Jenkison will be first choice with Yenaris back up. Of course we then sell one other player too so we can continue our tradition of selling two key players a season. Then as the new season begins Vermaelen, Koscielny or Arteta can start the process again.

its no problem, we have jenkinson......errr....sign sagna for longer quick

U*d and Chelsea are both in need of a good right back.

I think you know what my point is.

How about swapping Bacary for Benoit then? Seems a good punt to me!

Bluedub - No, or I wouldn't of asked. I'm not in the habit of wasting my breathe, especially on other clubs fans. We have Chamakh though, if you fancy blowing anotuher £50 million on a s*** striker?

Club were probably simply waiting on him to return from injury before offering a contract - there have been talks of Gibbs and Ox being offered new contracts too. I don't see how anyone can blame the club for not tying down Sagna to an extension considering he still has two years to run - if nothing happens by the end of the season then we can worry.

Sorry SER but if you're not in the habit of wasting your breath on other club's fans then why have you responded to both my posts? I think we're alright with the four strikers we have, thank you very much.

Breathe or breath?

Lampard and Cole have a year to run at Chelsea, Terry is at the same point as Sagna contract wise. They lost Bosingwa, Kalou and Drogba on frees this summer too. We're not unique in this regard. Two years is a perfectly acceptable time limit to put on renegotiating player contracts. Otherwise you literally have to give them a pay rise every single summer. I take it people would be prepared to pay ticket price rises every single summer to meet the cost?

No, City paid Adebayor off, they didn't pay Tottenham. Weak and clueless champions of England no less.

We are paying the price for not winning anything at all. I dont disagree with Arsenals contract position. But players leaving for silverware will not stop unless we win someting. Its a vicious cycle and we need luck to get out of this.

I meant more from a point of view of players questioning boards decisions, direction, uncertainty of what is going on RVP. Adebayor, Nasri, Sagna, Clichy have all done this. Seems to happen less at the other clubs. Either way the club/wenger often says one thing and does the other. Examples. We will not sell RVP, he is important we will keep him and run down his contract. Then he gets sold. We will certainly look to replace in the defensive midfield area if Song is sold. We sell him and dont replace. We wont keep any players in the final year who wont sign a contract. Theo is still here.

paul_ownz, well said.

Not sure I recall Nasri, Adebayor or Clichy questioning the board? At least not publicly?

I think Sagna's contract runs until 2014 but crucially the protected period runs out at the end of this season which, as with RvP means that the final year, doesn't give Arsenal as much negotiating power as it would do if some protected period of contract remained. But Sagna will be 30 before the end of this season. He should be more concerned whether we'll give him another contract at all. Next summer seems about the right time to move him on.

PMSL

I don't care if his contract is coming to an end or if he is right or wrong about the departures. I just wish they would shut up and stop moaning in the press. These matters should be kept inhouse instead of on the gutter press pages.

They're aired for a good reason. Agents use us as leverage and we oblige like good little pups. Much like van Persie, agents bank on supporters getting panicky and agitated when such things are aired and that in itself helps force the club's hand to bend to a player's demands. It's all part of the game. The Sunday press contained snippets that Arsenal were preparing to offer Sagna a new deal. They clearly planted that info and, coincidentally, Bacary has an interview booked in with a French newspaper days later. It's all part of the spin war.

I'm not sure that Hleb is the best example to illustrate whatever point you were hoping to make paul - and neither am I sure that the other quotes all from players who have joined City can really be relied upon as a honest illustration of players whose only motivation was to win silverware.

Basically questioning direction of club, their ability to compete. I guess i am just frustrated at 2 big names leaving per summer, others come in for a few years, get good and leave too. Need some stability. Also a a new wage structure needs to be implemented so you dont have scenarios where RVP & fabregas are on 80k and Bedtner, Denilso & squilaci are on 50k.

To be fair, Sagna will be 30 next year and is naturally, apprehensive and I put this down to the need for a re-assurance that the club will extend his stay, quite against Wenger's well known policy on contracts for 30+ players. Looking at him, though, I feel he still has a good 5 years left in him and deserves the club taking a chance on him with another 4 years contract. He can't be more concerned about the club's desire than the rest of us or the management and is not entitled to such key info as what the club plans to do with players agitating for pay rises or moves to other clubs.

Suppose it depends on whether you think that was aimed at the board, semantics. Gazidis already said this summer that the wage structure is being changed, but that's an incremental process that happens gradually. Maybe not rushing with a 30 year old who has broken his leg twice in the last ten months is part of that? Maybe not. I guess our issue is that we're in an unenviable position in a lot of ways. We are competing with teams better resourced (not to say we can't use our own better, we most certainly can) and our players are attractive to them. Spurs and Liverpool don't get this so much because they have fewer players capable of playing at this sort of level that these clubs want, other clubs in our domain have enough of the readies to keep players where they are. It's the food chain I guess. Much the same reason we were able to take Everton's best player, Werder Bremen's best defender, Ajax's captain, Montpellier's top scorer etc over recent years.

I dont have an issue with clubs contract negotiation policy but we need to get lucky somehow and have to somehow win something to break this cycle. Previously, we could have gone 17 years without a trophy and still come back to win the PL but the game has changed since. Today , if we are get into a rut, its much harder to get back into the game because of the money in the game and sugar daddies.

SER - Would you agree that Hleb, Cesc, RvP all left for trophies? Infact Arsene had a bigger pay package for RvP ready than what Utd offered. Nasri and Clichy say they went for trophies and the PL title vindicates their choice - though im not convinced that they are telling the truth.

Sajit - we all know why Cesc left, Hleb I have no clue on and RVP leaves me puzzled, can we honestly say that before he left for them that they had a better team/squad than us?

That wasn't the reason Song was sold at all. Song was agitating for more money and the club, quite reasonably, told him to wait his turn because A) he's not long into a new deal and b) the club had more urgent contract priorities and basically said "get in the queue, we'll get to you." Song started playing up when he was told that. If anything, Barca paid under price. There was almost no haggling in that deal cos Song was effectively shown the door by the club.

Spuds-U-Like - All good thanks matey, just don't appreciate condescending little p****s judging my English. If I needed to have it marked, I'd go back to school. As it's a football forum and not an English class, pedants like that need to shut up and get a life. My wedding's on the 29th, only a few weeks to go now! What's happening with you matey?

Sajit - Cesc left to go home, not trophies in particular, he already said that. Hleb left for more money at Inter, when that fell through he went to Barca. If you believe that RVP joined Utd for trophies not money then you're 100% gullible. There is absolutely no way on earth we had a bigger pay packet ready than what Utd offered, that is absolute rubbish, unless you know something the rest of us don't Sajit?

PS, getting a bit fed up with VS & the Spurs reporting in the media ATM, so losing a bit of interest & can't be bothered. Posted on here more often than VS recently! Shame, hope the mojo comes back soon.

Really will never understand this delusional, convenient notion gooners insist on--that players don't care about trophies. They don't mind seeing their friends and acquaintances, fellow professionals, in the game lifting those trophies, experiencing the glory and satisfaction of winning the ultimate prize, while they never get to know how that feels. That only if Arsenal could pay £200,000/wk while still not winning trophies, RVP & Flamini et al would still be with us. Esp. hilarious is that some are actually mystified that anyone would view Utd as a likelier trophy winner than us just because they're not the best Utd team ever. As if Ferguson having an unremarkable team has ever been a barrier to him winning a trophy. They lost the league on goal difference, ffs. Any objective observer will tell you a subpar Utd under Ferguson is more likely to win a trophy than a very talented AFC in 2012. Look at their team this season--hardly impressive. Yet I can almost guarantee you they'll still win ahead of us--barring something truly remarkable that would be a big change from the consistency of the last several years. Of course players love big wages, it would be foolish to think otherwise. But to believe that ambitious players like RVP have no problem at all watching former teammates like Nasri & Clichy lifting big trophies while their chance of lifting one at Arsenal still remains highly unlikely after 7 yrs of watching good players come & go and always failing at the big moments like a CC final against Birmingham just beggars belief. So fine-talented ambitious players don't give a damn about winning trophies. Go on believing that if it makes you feel better.

Speaking about the Carling cup final melt down, I feel the players have to accept their own part (of responsibility) in the failure to win, including RvP who limped off after scoring a goal. The club has had a few near misses and what committed and selfless players should do is roll up their sleeves to make sure such don't happen again; even if they must leave, please do it quietly and quit slagging off your teammates as inadequate. Steven Gerrard is a fine-talented player but has remained with Liverpool, nevertheless, through their period of barren runs and mediocrity. I can count a lot of other players who know the joy is greater to win it with your true teammates.

Not so, Jaelle. What I recall was everyone saying how long it was going to take the City players to gel and start winning. The fact is City had a deeper pocket to pay silly wages and that was a key attraction. If they were so dead certain to win the league and so much so, more certain than Arsenal, we shouldn't be taking 4 points off them season before last and they should be whipping us silly since, but we all agree the games have been close. It was more about the money; trophies came a distant second to some of these fellows otherwise, they would all be streaming to United and Chelsea Only. Heck! Dinamo Zagreb and Galatasaray have a higher chance of winning their leagues and they wont go to those sides to have their personal caninets decorated as much as they like. Like I said, it isn't much of a problem if the players were to leave; it is the way they insist on justifying their decision with a "need for trophies". Nasri's was even the more pathetic as he had barely spent 2 years with a top side in a top league and was already "hungry" for trophies? Puuleeeaaase!