Arsene Wenger has revealed contract negotiations with Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil have been put on hold until the summer.
The pair have just over a year remaining on their current deals at Arsenal and both are holding out for parity with the highest-paid Premier League players.
There remains uncertainty over whether Ozil or Sanchez can be tempted into extending their contracts at the Emirates Stadium, with Wenger’s own future still unknown.
The Arsenal boss has said he has made up his mind on whether he will remain in charge beyond the end of the current campaign but is yet to reveal if he will sign a two-year contract which is currently on the table.
But with four league defeats in their last five games and six losses in nine across all competitions, Wenger wants to focus on addressing an alarming slide in the Gunners’ form before entering negotiations with two of the club’s key players.
‘At the moment we have not got an agreement,’ he told beIN Sports when asked about Sanchez’s future.
‘We have decided to focus on the end of the season and talk about it in the summer, it is the same situation with Ozil because once you don’t find an agreement and it [the negotiation] lasts, it is not good so it is better you get it out and sit down in the summer.’
Wenger has said in the past he would rather let both players run down their contracts and leave for free in 2018 than sell them this summer, but it remains to be seen if that resolve will be tested.
Do you think that Arsenal should give Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil the money they want this season, or do you think the Gunners will sell them both this summer?
