ARSENAL boss Mikel Arteta has admitted that the situation regarding the club’s strikers has cast a cloud over the Emirates.
Axed skipper Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has missed the last four matches due to disciplinary issues, while Alexandre Lacazette and Eddie Nketiah are in the final year of their contracts.
Both Lacazette and Nketiah are free to talk to foreign clubs in January where they can sign a pre-contract agreement.
England youth international Nketiah, who scored a hat-trick in the Carabao Cup quarter-final against Sunderland on Tuesday, could be sold in a cut-price deal in the New Year.
West Ham and Brighton have been linked with a move for the 22-year-old after rejecting pleas to sign a new deal.
Meanwhile Lacazette’s agents are already ‘starting to look’ at transfer options should he depart North London.
Speaking ahead of Arsenal’s Boxing Day clash away at Norwich, Arteta conceded: “We have a cloud and the cloud is there. At the moment we’re not able to change it.
FREE BETS: GET OVER £2,000 IN NEW CUSTOMER DEALS
“We’re working on it to try to make it as small as possible and as clear as possible.
“But it’s the situation we are in because contracts have details, the timing of them is tricky and we are trying to resolve it.”
Commenting on whether Lacazette or Nketiah could extend their stay, Arteta added: “It depends on every single case.
“Depends on the player’s situation, the minutes he’s playing, his willingness or the offer that you have, but it’s something that you have to consider.”
Arteta then discussed Aubameyang’s exile from the squad after the Gabon international arrived back from an authorised trip to France a day late.
He remarked: “I don’t establish my authority by being dictatorial or being ruthless.
“I just ask for respect and commitment. At this level, if I don’t get that I pack my bags and go somewhere else because that is the minimum I can ask for.
“I am sorry but I am going to expect that from everybody who works for the club. First of all myself, and the day I don’t do that I walk through that door and go and do something else. It is as clear as that.
“To be successful you have to be passionate about something and you want to represent a club of this size with its history, that is the minimum standard you have to bring.
“I am not going to ask anybody to put the ball into the top corner every time they hit it, but I will ask them to do the right things every single day for this club. That is for sure.”
Read our Football news live blog for the very latest rumours, gossip and done deals
