If you’re not an Arsenal fan, it’s hard to look beyond Lehmann’s attitude on the pitch. He’s aggressive, he gets provoked (or commits fouls, depending on your interpretation) very easily, is sometimes shaky when rushing out and is getting old. Yes, he was the best goalkeeper in Europe, but that counts for scant little when you realise that Lehmann is not going to get any better than that.
If you ARE an Arsenal fan though, it’s easy to get sentimental about Lehmann when you see him pull off yet another classy save. Myles recently said that he’d offer Lehmann a two-year contract if it was in his hands, but that’s just looking at one save, in the present. Wenger’s looking at the future, and there are few people better suited to planning for a club’s future than Arsene Wenger.
Arsenal’s policy to not offer players over 30 more than 1-year contracts is a policy devoid of any emotional attachment – and that’s why it works so well.
It would be interesting to see what type of deal Henry gets once his current deal expires – assuming he stays that long. If Wenger is around, he won’t get anything better than a 1-year deal.
And when you place football over money, and the club over individual players, that’s how it should be.
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