Former Arsenal player Perry Groves has said the Gunners have messed up letting so many contracts run down and believes Huss Famhy was a smokescreen to fool supporters.

Many would agree that Arsenal haven’t handled the contracts of several first-teamers very well this summer. A number of players have 12 months remaining on their contract and none have them have extended so far.

In particular, the contract situations of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez have created ongoing and tiresome transfer sagas that everyone would have liked to avoided.

Former Arsenal player Perry Groves has joined the chorus of people criticising the club for allowing things to reach this state. “He’s got a brave face on it, he has to spin it. Alastair Campbell would be pleased with Arsene on this one!” Groves told talkSPORT via the Express.

“They’ve brought in a man who is a specialist contract negotiation, Huss Fahmy. Then there’s Dick Law and Mr Gazidis – they are a well-run football club as a business. Actually, they are unbelievably well run but this, right now, just isn’t good business.

“Footballers are now assets and it’s now how much they’re worth. By letting them get in the last year of their contracts, that assets now diminish. A small advantage for Arsenal is they have a World Cup coming up. These top players won’t down tools.”

The name-dropping of Huss Fahmy is interesting, as the legal expert has only been at Arsenal for a couple of months. He was brought in to oversee the legalities of the players’ contracts and not the actual terms, which is being left to Dick Law. Clearly, Groves feels his appointment was made to fool supporters that the club were trying to right past wrongs.

Regardless of who’s working on the contracts, it’s a collective failure that it’s gotten to this state. Arsene Wenger recently stated having players with only a year to go can be a positive thing, as if forces such stars to perform to earn an extension. But given the players are linked with big clubs this summer, there’s no motivation to impress the Gunners.