Samir Nasri has become the second major Arsenal playmaker to leave The Emirates this August.
The French midfielder will be heading north to join money bags Manchester City in a move estimated to be costing City around £22 million.
The departure of Nasri will have many Gunners fans scratching their heads and wondering who, in a young and inexperienced Arsenal squad, is going to be able to bring some silverware back to the Emirates trophy cabinet after a seven year drought.
What Arsenal fans should also be concerned about is 12 months time and asking the question, who at Arsenal could be off next.
Could It Happen?
It's a real possibility and should be a real worry for fans of the north London club.
If there's one thing that modern day football has lost its the players loyalty to their clubs. We've seen key figures such as William Gallas move from Chelsea, to Arsenal, to Spurs in consecutive transfers. We've seen players leave top quality European leagues to play in Russia and America for a fist full of Dollars (or rubles).
Money and trophies talk in 21st Century football and the days of a players seeing out their career at one or two clubs are few and far between.
Those that do are in the minority as the players go in search of money, while the clubs throw it at them by the bucket load in order to maintain their incomes from league titles and Champions League television money. If the moneys good, players will take it.
Bad Timing
Arsenal's potential fall from glory (although things don't look good for the Gunners it's not all over yet) is coming at an awkward time for the London side. Andrei Arshavin's contract continues to run down to its final months,(the Russian still hasn't added an extension to the 12 months remaining on his current contract) while Robin Van Persie's deal at the Gunners is starting to reach a pivotal point.
Should Arsenal be unable to mount a respectable title challenge, fail to land a domestic trophy or both in 2011/12 Van Persie wil come to the end of the season with one year remaining on his contract and a big decision to make. Should I stay or should I go?
If the suitors are there from clubs of a higher pedigree the Dutch striker could be off to pastures new.
Another player who's deal at Arsenal is heading toward the latter stages is Theo Walcott. Although Mr Walcott's contract is rumoured to finish at the end of the 2013/14 season, he too could be swayed into a big money move away form the Emirates should Arshavin, Van Persie and others look likely to leave.
Walcott's departure is obviously dependant on other factors but should Arsenal fail to improve their squad sufficiently between now and next season, there will be a number of mangers who would love to have the 22 year-old in their squads, especially those looking to mount title runs of their own.
Aren't We Getting Ahead of Ourselves?
Yes and no. Looking at the transfer market 12 months down the line isn't something that you would expect to see. Especially when we still have 8 days left in the current transfer window, not to mention a January transfer window that always throws up a few mid-season surprises. Its almost impossible to predict the moves the Gunners could make to either add or detract from the strenght of their current squad, let alone predict how they will fair in league and cup competitions (this has been written before their 2nd leg clash with Udinese so I can't say if they have or haven't crashed out of the Champions League in the qualifying stages).
What I will say is this. Arsenal, as of yet, haven't signed any big name or money players (Gervinho is untested and thanks to an opening day red card at Newcastle we are yet to see how well he fits in with either Arsenal or the Premiership), but they have lost two of their most influential players. With a difficult opening three games to the season and more key contracts needing to be sorted in the next twelve months, the Gunners need to be aware that a bad September and October could have disastrous effects on certain players futures at the club.
Its not as unlikely as Arsenal fans may think that in 12 months time they could be looking at two or three more key figures walking away and very little coming in the other way.
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