For many years, Arsene Wenger has espoused a change in the summer transfer system. Like many other managers, he would prefer a model whereby the transfer window closed before the first game of the season.

It makes sense on many levels. Premier League teams play three games before the end of August, and managers really should know the final make-up of their squads for those fixtures.

Instead, players they may be counting on are potential departures and gaps in the squad that need to be filled remain vacant. Of course there's nothing stopping clubs operating in that manner, but as long as the window remains open, the market tends to dictate what happens.

As it stands, Arsenal should be glad of the extra time because there are still so many issues to sort out.

Everyone knows the futures of Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Ozil, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain are yet to be dealt with, and despite what Wenger says even the Arsenal manager can't believe the situation is "ideal".

His ability to put a positive spin on things publicly is to be admired in many ways, but the Frenchman is long enough in the game to know he and the club are now essentially slaves to the power of the players and their agents. And in those circumstances, the outcomes are usually costly. If not financially, as they're held over a barrel for lucrative new contracts, then from a sporting perspective as the talent moves on to pastures new.

So, while they deal with players they want to keep, they must also manage the players that they are willing to let go. The list, at least by the standards of the transfer tittle-tattle, appears to be quite fluid.

However, it seems relatively clear that at least Mathieu Debuchy, Kieran Gibbs, Carl Jenkinson, Calum Chambers, Lucas Perez, and Jack Wilshere are on the outward list. There are also question marks over more senior figures Olivier Giroud and David Ospina as Wenger looks to trim a squad he described earlier in the summer as "heavy".

Some have suggested the difficulties Arsenal have had in moving some of these players on stems from their high salaries. Potential buyers may not be able to match what they're being paid right now, and it's hard to convince anyone they should take a pay cut. Football is a job, after all.

One of the most high profile deals of the summer shows that such an issue is far from insurmountable. Although they've had an influx of cash and liquidity, it seems very unlikely that Everton would have been able to match Wayne Rooney's Manchester United compensation package.

United are one of the richest clubs in world football and Rooney and his agent Paul Stretford were adept at extracting the maximum amount of money from them over the years. He must have had to take some kind of pay cut or, at the very least, had a kind of payoff from Old Trafford that went some way to make up the difference.

The other very obvious factors at play here were that Everton wanted Rooney, and Rooney wanted Everton. His connection to that club is obvious, and that makes it easier to do a deal.

Beyond Lucas Perez's desire to return to his hometown club, Deportivo La Coruna, it's hard to see that kind of situation replicated for the men currently in the North London departure lounge. It may well be a case that the club have to incentivise the players to leave.

Right now they're stuck with a clutch of unwanted footballers and even if they wanted to move them on before the start of the season, they'd find it hard to do it in that time-frame.

Perhaps Wenger will get his wish in the future, the window will close the day before the season starts, but the Arsenal manager and his executives now have until the end of August to try and deal with football and business at the same time, without it having any notable impact on the pitch.

Source:
courtesy of ESPNFC

by ANDREW MANGAN

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