Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez futures could be sorted with money no object for Gunners board

Ivan Gazidis tells AGM that Arsenal can compete with the best when it comes to wages as they look to tie down key duo

ARSENAL insist they can afford to keep Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez at the club.

The duo are both out of contract in 2018 and have been linked with moves away from the Emirates.

Arsenal have been forced to sell their top players in the past in order to balance the books.

But Ivan Gazidis is adamant the Gunners can compete with any other team in the world when it comes to wages and will try their hardest to get Ozil and Sanchez to commit their respective futures.

He told the Arsenal AGM: “We have a good track record in recent seasons of retaining our key players, developing young players and attracting new players.

“We are now beginning to compete in terms of wages with some of those clubs around us. There is continual growth in investment in wages but also in transfer fees.

“Very importantly our players sales have reduced so we have retained more of our important players. We’ve had funds available to pay market values and as a result the reliance we have had on transfer revenue has gone down dramatically.

“I can’t get into a discussion on individual players but I can assure you we will apply the same focus, rigour and diligence to members of our current squad and I think you can see the direction of travel.

“Overall we have attracted some global talent – Sanchez and Ozil are renowned names. We increasingly believe we have constructed a squad that is capable of competing for the very highest honours in the game.”