Why do players leave their clubs? Some players leave because of money. That is not as common as people make it out to be. If you are a player like Eto’o who has nothing left to win or a player like Asamoah Gyan that doesn’t believe that he will ever play for a club that has the chance to win a major title, then money becomes a motivator.

In most cases, however, players move to clubs that give them a better opportunity to win. A footballer has a small productive period in professional life – generally from 24 to 30 or you could extend that from 22 to 32. Still, it is between 6 to 10 years to gain everything you can out of the game. The medals mean the most followed by creating your retirement fund.

Players can see the trend in football (that Wenger confessed to last week). They can see how money is influencing the chances of trophies and they cannot see this changing in the next decade (during their playing lifetime) so they have to take decisions based on that and look after number one. Can you blame them? Really?

The taboo of a player moving from Tottenham to Arsenal or from Man Utd to Man City or Arsenal to Man City etc is all gone. Players look after number one and so they should. Football has changed in that respect. Few players are going to sit and waste their one and only chance (a small 10 year period) because of loyalty to an entity that could sell them tomorrow if they wished; to a club they didn’t want to go. Loyalty is over. My prediction is that with this new mobility, we are going to see the same with the larger proportion of the fan-base (the ones that are not born in the small 10 square kilometres of the club). The moment big money came into football, a chain reaction started that Arsène Wenger will not be able to change. He better stop complaining and get with the program.

Evra earns less than Nasri or Adebayor. What keeps him at Old Trafford is the knowledge that he can win trophies there. Nasri’s new contract at Arsenal would have given him more money than Evra. He left because he saw other clubs making the investment required to win. The same is true for Fabregas and Clichy.

As soon as players start thinking of leaving, they stop caring about where the team will be next season. When that happens, they stop giving their best. Arsenal’s collapse at the end of last season was a lot about players being unable to make the sprint to the finish line. Fourth place was clearly not the most important thing for Clichy, Cesc, Nasri who were on their way out. They would not be there to live the consequences.

All the above is not rocket sense. Agents know this and right now Arsenal is giving every reason for agents from around the world to come and start the process of securing the next deal for Arsenal’s prized assets. Bacary Sagna, Szczesny, Alex Song, Thomas Vermaelen, Ramsey, Wilshere, van Persie and even Gervinho will be in their sights.

After this kind of start to the season and all that is in the papers, it will not take much to get some of these players to start thinking about whether they will leave their football careers empty handed or with something. For players like Koscielny who are constantly wrongly blamed, it is easy to make them question whether it is worth it. For Sagna, van Persie, Gervinho, Chamakh and Vermaelen and even Alex Song, whether they will win a trophy in their careers or not is a very serious question given their age. IF these players start thinking about that; IF any of the agents do their jobs well and turn these players thoughts to the exit door then Arsenal’s season is Finished!! In fact, Arsenal for another few years is finished because we are not as attractive to new talents as we used to be.

Arsenal is in a critical point now and I hope Stan and Ivan realise that. It is not at the end of the season, it is NOW. Something needs to be done to protect the club and the future that Wenger and the board and fans have worked so hard to build.

Consider this. Seven years ago, Wenger would have called Juan Mata and said “Arsenal is interested in you, we will not be ready till deadline day so be patient”. Juan Mata, knowing Arsenal’s reputation – unbeaten run, excellent football, trophies, growth of young players etc would probably have waited and even taken a pay cut to come to Arsenal. These days, Wenger cannot command that kind of response from any player. Arsenal’s interest is not worth much much less these day – hell, we lost two of our best players to Manchester City because they wanted to win trophies even though Man City only have an FA cup to show for the last donkey years.

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