Chronicle EditorLONDON. — Marco Reus has been identified as a potential replacement for Alexis Sanchez or Mesut Ozil should Arsenal fail to extend the contracts of their two star players. Arsenal’s priority is still to persuade both players to stay on beyond the expiry date of their existing deals in 2018, but they would be extremely reluctant to let the pair play into the final year of their contracts if no agreement could be reached by next August.
It is understood that offers of around £180 000-a-week have been made although both players will be well aware that salaries in excess of £200 000-a-week have become increasingly common for the every elite English Premier League players.
“It doesn’t really depend on me so much as it does the club, if they want to show confidence in me,” said Sanchez last week, in apparent reference to his potential salary. Sanchez, who has already scored 14 goals this season, would be arguably more difficult to replace but Reus is a player of long-standing, and continued, interest to the club.
Like Sanchez, Reus is 27 and can operate both as a main central striker or in one of the three more withdrawn attacking roles that manager Arsene Wenger employs in his usual 4-2-3-1 system.
He has scored more than 20 goals in two of his three previous seasons at Borussia Dortmund and, although under contract until 2019, could receive a huge pay rise at Arsenal.
Wenger himself is out of contract at the end of the season but has said that he will resolve his future next year and there has been no indication that his situation is impacting on the Ozil/Sanchez negotiations.
Although Wenger has claimed that both players would stay until at least 2018, regardless of whether they agree a new deal, Arsenal have previously accepted offers for key players once it became clear that they would not renew.
Both Ozil and Sanchez are happy living in London, and how they play regularly in their preferred positions for Arsenal, but Wenger knows that, as well as meeting their financial demands, much will hinge on whether the club can challenge for the Premier League title.
In the space of just eight days, Arsenal have gone from top to fourth and ominously fallen nine points behind leaders Chelsea. There are also renewed questions about their mental strength in the biggest games of the season after they lost to Manchester City, despite having led 1-0. As well as the City match, Arsenal have failed to win important matches this season against Tottenham, Everton and Paris St Germain after taking the lead.
With a relatively-kind fixture list until they face Chelsea at the start of February, Arsenal do now have a chance to re-establish their momentum, but could be without Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain against West Bromwich Albion on Boxing Day. Oxlade-Chamberlain came off after playing only 13 minutes against Man City with a hamstring injury that is still being assessed.
Danny Welbeck has now rejoined full training following knee ligament surgery, but will not be in contention for the first-team until January. Shkodran Mustafi and Per Mertesacker should also return in the New Year and, while Santi Cazorla is unlikely to return until March, Wenger is currently not playing any senior first-team additions in January. — The Daily Telegraph.
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