“We can't be in a situation where we're allowing players to walk out of the door for free,” was the declaration from Arsenal's managing director Vinai Venkatesham in May 2019.
The comments came in response to Aaron Ramsey joining Juventus on a free transfer that summer, a season after the Gunners had got themselves into a similar mess with the contracts of Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez. A brave new dawn was promised.
