Arsene Wenger determined to remain optimistic but Arsenal's contract mess is far from a positive

The theory goes that if players are in their final year then they are will be especially motivated to play well with the prospect of a big-money move on offer. But what if the opposite is true?

Wenger remains optimistic although Arsenal's fans are understandably nervous (Getty)

Everyone is optimistic two weeks before the season starts but it was with the rose-tinted glasses very much on that Arsene Wenger said on Sunday evening that Arsenal’s contract mess might help the club.

While north London rivals Tottenham have done well to keep the bulk of their squad together over the summer, Arsenal have managed to get themselves into a position where their two best players – Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil – are each in the last year of their contract.

Sanchez will not be signing a new one and Ozil is in no rush to do so either. Many clubs in this situation would be rushing around to find buyers, hoping to recoup what they spent on the pair – the best part of £80million – rather than lose them for free in the summer of 2018.

But Wenger, ever the purist, does not see it this way. He has insisted repeatedly that Sanchez will not leave, and there is no push to sell Ozil either, not that too many teams want to take him. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is in the same boat too, with one year left and no immediate prospect of a solution.

It is not a model way to run a club but Wenger is determined as ever to take the positives. “it’s not an issue,” he said, after Arsenal sealed their Emirates Cup triumph with a 2-1 defeat to Sevilla. “I think it’s an ideal situation. Because everyone has to perform. When you’re a football player, you perform until the last day of your contract. Do you really think they sit in the dressing room and think: ‘Oh, I have one year to go, I will not play well today.’”

Oxlade-Chamberlain is another player who could leave on the cheap (Getty)

The theory goes that if players are in their final year then they are will be especially motivated to play well, not least with the prospect of a lucrative free-transfer move away from Arsenal on offer.

But what if the opposite is true? There is plenty of evidence to suggest that players in the midst of contract sagas play worse, not better. Wenger’s glib dismissal of the possibility that players get distracted by their contract situations sounded off, especially when he himself admitted at the end of last season that his own contract saga had damaged the club. This is not to criticise Sanchez, Ozil, Oxlade-Chamberlain or anyone else, just to recognise that professionals do not perform to their best when their futures are in flux.

Add to that the fact that there is a World Cup next year, an even that often stops players from pushing themselves too hard in the last months before it. Of course every player wants to be playing well before a tournament so that they get picked, but they desperately do not want to get injured. And that tends to soften their performances.

All of which means that if Wenger thinks he can get the absolute best from Sanchez, if he stays, Ozil and Oxlade-Chamberlain this season then he is certainly trying to make the most of a very difficult situation. Whether he will, only time will tell, but this point is does not feel likely.