Arsenal have rewarded Bacary Sagna with a new contract until 2014. The news came out a few days ago but we now know the length of the deal.
“I love Arsenal, they are a great club. The manager is also very good and next season we will be fighting for all the trophies.”
Sagna is definitely the best right-back in the Premiership and was our top signing last summer. In typical Wenger style, he arrived with little furore and proceeded to play amzingly all season.
The fact that we have renewed his contract after just one season at the club is good, it means we can hold onto a top player, but it also reveals the state of the transfer system at the moment.
With players like Hleb being linked away from the club with this Webster Clause and others like Flamini leaving, it seems that we are putting in a concerted effort to keep the team together and happy in their contracts. I have no problem with this, but it does show that the club is a bit more wary of loyalty issues now.
Peter Hill-Wood made comments about the same issue, speaking harshly about the lack of loyalty which is present in football these days:
“Nowadays, a lot of people sign four-year contracts and you heave a sigh of relief. Six months later they come marching in saying they want double the wages.
“The only answer is to tell them they are on that contract and that’s it. Unless you do that, the game will become chaotic and descend into anarchy.“I think there are very few people who have really got the tradition of the club at heart. You can name them on one hand. Actually I can’t name them on one hand and that’s a great pity.”
“In the old days money was not the big driving force. Nobody was greedy. People didn’t come marching in for pay rises, be they executives, senior managers, players, whatever. People weren’t motivated by the money. They liked the job, they liked the club and they wanted to go to work in the morning. Everyone has become much more materialistic.
“I think that is one of the reasons why Arsene [Wenger] signs younger players. OK, they will probably walk out in five years but at least he has the opportunity to mould them. But some of the so-called stars have got their own ideas about what should happen and don’t always agree with what we think.”
“We are going to go on this way. We are not going to be diverted. We are not going to spend £100 million,”
This is apparent in players like Flamini and possibly Hleb. I am all for sticking to our guns and doing things the way we have been doing them. Arsenal as a club know that we are not like the Chelseas of this world and we don’t have to spend oceans of money to be the best in the league.
ArseSpeak 
The real problem lies in the agent’s who manipulate and promote their personal agendas(greed,power,and pride) over the interests of the clubs. They couldn’t care a whit about the clubs, the fans and even their clients(the players). Many consider the players to be stupid, spoilt puppets that can be used to enrich the agent’s posckets through exorbitant fees, ridiculous demands on hard-pressed clubs and so on. You can also thank clubs like Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barcelona, AC Milan etc. who are willing to pay whatever these bastards ask in order to win. Forget loyalty…clubs sell their stars at the drop of a hat so why shouldn’t the players play the same game?
Arsenal’s insistence on sticking to a wage ceiling and refusing to buy big name superstars at inflated prices is the ONLY way to preserve some club solidity and loyalty. You can bet they will be hard-pressed to maintain that philosophy over the next few years but more power to them. The transfer market is on the verge of collapsing under the weight of greed, arrogance, stupidity and short-sighted clubs that want silverware now, rather than building a realFootball club like Arsenal does every year!
Couldn’t agree more with Hill-Wood and the last paragraph.
By the way, this is definitely one of the better blogs on the net, great job. May I suggest trying to newsnow to include your posts?