Arsenal Celebrate Contract Extensions

There was cause for much merriment, so the club had us believe at least, last December when it was announced Kieran Gibbs, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jack Wilshire, Carl Jenkinson and Aaron Ramsey were reported to have signed extended contracts to keep them at the Arsenal for the foreseeable future.

Given that players like Robin Van Persie and Cesc Fabregas had moved on as well others whose contracts had been inexplicably allowed to run down this multi extension signing was supposed to show the future of the club was in good hands.

Add Theo Walcott into the mix and there was a core of six British players who, it is hoped, would be at the heart of the Arsenal for years to come.

For a saddo like me the date of the announcement was interesting. OK young men signing a bit of paper before Christmas is unlikely to have me racing to the advent calender in glee at my age but the announcement on 19 December mirrored a similar event back in 1987. Which was announced in the programme for the Everton game of that season on the same date.

George Graham was manager back then and he was proper chuffed 'absolutely delighted' in fact to announce a similar contract signing bonanza.

To put in context memories are long among football fans and we at the Arsenal are no different. We still recalled how Liam Brady and Frank Stapleton were allowed to leave years earlier and were never adequately replaced.

Italian football then was the place to be. It was the biggest and most glamourous league in the world with the most cash and players like Brady, Trevor Francis, Mark Hateley and Ian Rush were among those tempted by the bucket fulls of lira on offer.

Hence the thrill when Tony Adams, David Rocastle, Michael Thomas, Paul Merson and Perry Groves signed new, improved contracts while Paul Davis signed an extension.

And it's fair to say that lot turned out alright in the main. I say in the main. You could argue Rocastle and Thomas were sold when they still had much to offer but certainly Adams went on for another 15 years while Merson had the best part of a decade before moving on and Davis, after a shaky start in the first team developed into a very tidy player indeed who should have won caps for England and would have if he hadn't decked Glenn Cockerill a year later.

Of half dozen who signed contracts recently it remains to be seen who of them goes on to have an Adams type impact on the club. It could be argued the likes of Ramsey and Oxlade-Chamberlain have regressed this season through being played out of position or not getting enough games. And Theo Walcott surely has to be on Crimestoppers some time soon as a missing person; he has done nothing since signing.

Only time will tell if the current crop of young, promising types have the same impact as the earlier vintage.