Arsenal must pay Alexis Sanchez whatever he wants to convince him to sign a new contract at the Emirates, according to Gunners great Ray Parlour.
Sanchez is among a host of Arsenal stars, whose number includes Mesut Ozil and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, whose contract is due to expire at the end of next season, with the Chilean striker having emerged as a target for the likes of Bayern Munich, Manchester City and Juventus.
The club have offered to make Sanchez one of the highest earners in the Premier League in a bid to convince their top scorer to help them compete for trophies and get back into the Champions League next season.
However they face competition, with Bayern having indicated a willingness to pay Sanchez £350,000-a-week if he makes the switch to the Bundesliga.
Parlour, who won three league titles and four FA Cups over a 12 year spell at Arsenal from 1992, believes his former club should be willing to match that or any other offer if it keeps Sanchez at the club.
“The club have got to make it an issue now, give the players the wages they want,” Parlour said on Talksport. “They’ve got to step up now.
“They’ve come fifth in the league this year, which we know is not good enough for Arsenal’s standards. They won a trophy in the FA Cup. The manager has been sorted out, that’s on the backburner, now the [future of the] players is the most important [issue].
“If you want to compete with the likes of [Manchester] City, Chelsea, [Manchester] United, whoever it’s going to be next year, then you’ve got to keep your best players.
“I would say to Sanchez… ‘How much do you want?’ If his agent says ‘we want £300,000-a-week’ you have to pay it I’m afraid.”
It is likely that Arsenal will also need to offer significantly improved terms to Oxlade-Chamberlain, who is a target for Liverpool, whilst Ozil is likely to demand in excess of £250,000-a-week.
As such Arsenal will need to shed wages elsewhere, with the likes of David Ospina, Wojciech Szczesny, Mathieu Debuchy and Kieran Gibbs likely to leave this summer.
