Arsenal fans could be forgiven if they felt increasingly anxious about the prospect of both Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil leaving the Emirates Stadium in 2018.
Neither player appears to be close to signing a new contract extension with the Gunners, despite the fact their respective deals only have 18 months left before they expire.
Alexis has been offered an astronomical £400,000-a-week to leave London for the Chinese Super League while there will be no shortage of clubs willing to pay Ozil more than the £200,000-a-week he wants to stay at Arsenal if he decides to quit his current employers.
If Sanchez and Ozil are thinking about the possibility of leaving Arsenal then who could blame them.
They’re two of the most talented attack-minded players in Europe and they should be competing for the biggest trophies, including league titles and, of course, the Champions League.
Arsene Wenger has been in football for far too long to believe that everything will work out in the end.
He’s lost too many good players during his managerial career to rest on his laurels.
Which is why, according to The Sun, the veteran French coach has identified two players as potential replacements for Alexis and Ozil.
The first is a household name of European football: Borussia Dortmund winger Marco Reus.
The 27-year-old has scored 80 goals in 171 appearances for BVB but is contracted to the German giants until 2019.
And the other is Reus’s highly-rated teammate Christian Pulisic.
The attacking midfielder only turned 18 in September but has established himself as a key member of Thomas Tuchel’s squad as Signal Iduna Park this season.
He also has 11 caps for the United States and three goals.
Few Arsenal fans would agree that Reus and Pulisic would be an upgrade – or even a like-for-like replacement – on Ozil and Sanchez.
They might also be concerned that Wenger is looking at potential alternatives for if the worst happens.
However, the Gunners could certainly do a lot worse than the Dortmund duo if their two star men do decide to move on to pastures new.
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