Arsenal transfer news: Gunners need to pay Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil £156m in wages to keep them at the club
The German and South American have Arsenal supporters purring whilst the Arsenal board are counting their pennies
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ARSENAL face forking out a bank-busting £156MILLION to keep superstars Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez.
Both players are eyeing new, improved £300,000-a-week five-year contracts, costing the Gunners a phenomenal £78m in wages for EACH of them.
The Football Leaks consortium have disclosed full details of Ozil’s current £62.6m five-year Emirates deal.
It was understood the German World Cup winner’s existing contract was worth £140,000 a week.
But the figures reveal he is already pocketing £240,000 a week. Both players’ contracts run out in 2018 and Chile striker Sanchez — who has also been offered an incredible £400,000 a week to move to China — wants parity with his team-mate on any new Arsenal deal.
Football Leaks claim Ozil signed several contracts with Arsenal on September 2, 2013.
The documents show Ozil earns a basic Arsenal salary of 10.2million euros a year.
He also trousers 1.8m euros for each season the Gunners qualify for the Champions League group stages PLUS another 1.2m euros a year as a signing-on bonus following his £42.5m transfer from Real Madrid.
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On top of that, Arsenal pay an additional 1,476,095 euros a year to his Dusseldorf company Ozil Marketing GmbH — which owns his image rights — as part of an agreement that they would pay him a guaranteed annual salary of 8,077,000 euros NET of tax.
That adds up to a phenomenal 14,676,095 euros a year.
And, following the Brexit vote and the resulting falling value of the pound against the euro, it means the North London club are paying Ozil a whopping £12,529,000 a year.
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Football Leaks also claim German sportswear giants Adidas have a seven-year sponsorship deal with him until 2020 which is also expected to net him another £13.47m.
Ozil, 28, has become a vital member of Wenger’s title-chasing team since Arsenal signed the playmaker from Real in the summer of 2013.
He has already scored eight goals and made five assists this season, with the Gunners bidding to win their first Premier League crown since the 2003-04 Invincibles.
The figures show Ozil is already one of the highest-paid players in the Premier League and highlights exactly how much the North London club will have to cough up to keep him, let alone 27-year-old Sanchez.
Gunners boss Arsene Wenger admitted earlier this week that he has been “naive” over negotiating their new contracts.
Football Leaks have accused Ozil of a “cover-up” over his tax affairs when he was at Real Madrid.
They say leaked emails from his tax advisers reveal he had narrowly avoided criminal proceedings.
Spanish tax authorities are alleged to have demanded to see both Real and Arsenal contracts, including details concerning the 1.47m euros Arsenal paid to Ozil’s agent Erkut Sogut in September 2013.
Football Leaks also insist other documents reveal Real had guaranteed Ozil gross annual earnings of 8,771,930 euros following his 2010 transfer from German club Werder Bremen.