Wenger is not happy about players being able to leave clubs
so easily
Arsenal
manager Arsene Wenger has predicted that the football
transfer system could collapse altogether if increasing levels of
power are given to players. Wenger is worried that the game is
about to move into a phase where players will only commit
themselves to a club for one year contracts and will be continually
looking to switch teams looking for the most lucrative financial
package.
The Gunners have already lost midfielder Mathieu Flamini to AC
Milan on a free transfer this summer and could be without Alexander
Hleb next year as well, with the Belarusian hoping to secure a move
abroad.
Wenger fears that the increasing number of laws that allow a player
to get out of his contract will cause a complete collapse of the
current system. "A team sport needs time and stability and all the
rules in our game go against that," he told the Sunday Telegraph.
Wenger alluded to the case of former Wigan and Hearts defender Andy
Webster, who won a ground breaking case that allowed him to buy
himself out of his contract.
That ruling now allows players buy out their contracts if they have
completed three years of a four or five-year contract and are under
the age of 28. If they are over 28, they can do so after two years.
Hleb is in a position where he could buy out his contract but has
said he will not do so.
"At the moment it's either three years or two but believe me, soon
someone will challenge that and ask why at 28 years old and not,
say, at 27," said Wenger. "And then it will be why after two years
and not one? Once you get to that stage, the transfer system is
dead. You'd have a team built for a year - then you are in big
trouble."
If the current system ceased in the way Wenger has suggested it
might, then it could also spell the end of the massive transfer
fees currently paid by Europe's top clubs, with more money going to
the players in wages.