How has Giroud’s contract slipped under the media radar?  His current form and acceleration to world status over a relatively short period of time have earned him the right to be in the conversation.  The media frenzy is focusing on only Ozil and Sanchez, by way of Wenger.  The actual list of players contracted with the club until June 2018 includes Ozil, Sanchez, Gibbs, Ramsey, Giroud, Jenkinson, Oxlade-Chamberlain, and Macey.  That is completely skipping over the June 2017 close for Wenger, Mertesacker, Cazorla, and Sanogo.  (TransferMrkt.com)

The focus of this article will be on the top three assets that Arsenal currently has on the pitch.  I think it’s important to put it in perspective and break down the actual approach to keeping our stars.  First, I have some questions to consider:

1. Who, in the world of football, would you choose to come in to improve the respective roles held by Sanchez, Ozil, and Giroud?
2. What is the cost of replacing those mentioned above with an improved, direct, like-for-like player?
3. If there was no money involved, who would you honestly swap one-for-one to take their places?

Without considering the potential gain in the sale of the Sanchez, Ozil, or Giroud, I would not trade them for anyone.  There is value in knowing the club, and I can not think of any player who does exactly what these three do better than the way they do it.  Supplement their talent?  Absolutely.  The depth of the current squad is a nice change, but the top quality is still a bit shallow.  Now, before you incinerate your living room, your children’s’ artwork, and your dogs because of the audacity of this Californian to make such a claim, let’s bring finances back into the mix.

 

We know that contract negotiations have begun and the discussion seems to be over wages.  Fans will concern themselves over the perceived greediness of the players, but the market is the market and holding on to your top talents comes at a cost.  That cost, however, may be significantly less than the alternative.  Consider a player asking for 350k-pounds/week.  Insane, right?  It would shatter the club’s wage structure and create a ripple effect throughout the playing staff.

When that 350k/week is compared to the cost of signing an improved player, it is dwarfed.  By the magic of advanced and theoretical mathematics, that 350k/week equates to 18.2 million pounds annually.  Removing the portion of the deal being summed by bonuses and sponsorships, you’re looking at 300k/week (15.6M).  Review the questions above, and tell me truthfully, where do you expect to find, in the current market, a player who can step into the team with immediate world-class impact for less than 20M?

It is in the Arsenal’s very best interest to keep the talent that we have bread or acquired.  The squad needs to be grown and enhanced, not swapped for marginal positional improvement.  The reported unrest over the manager’s future is difficult to account for and the reaction to Arsene leaving would be even harder to predict.  I hope that the club sees these very basic principles and does not act whimsically when it comes to the contracts of the most important building blocks that we have.