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LONDON. — The humble manager’s Press conference has been one of the central breeding grounds of misdirection in sport and, on Sunday, that of Arsene Wenger featured a line that did not so much stretch credulity, but tear it completely in two.

Discussing the scenario in which Arsenal’s two best players, Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez, have been allowed to enter the final year of their contracts, Wenger claimed it was “an ideal situation” for the club.

That might appear an inversion of logic, yet there is an argument that a player with one year remaining on his contract would play at a high level to impress interested clubs. The trouble is that, when Wenger attempted to expand on his initial argument, he went in a different direction and what followed didn’t really make any sense.

“When you’re a football player, you perform until the last day of your contract. Whether you have two or one year left, it doesn’t change,” he said.

If that is the case, then, there is no benefit at all to winding a contract down.

It was then put to Wenger that, if Ozil and Sanchez left on free transfers, £72.5m of investment would walk out of the Emirates Stadium door for free.

“Even if that happens, it doesn’t matter,” the Arsenal manager responded.

While Wenger did make a thoughtful point about the dramatic escalation in transfer fees meaning more players would run down contracts if interested parties are unwilling to pay full price, it simply isn’t credible to describe as “ideal” what is happening with the contracts of Ozil and Sanchez, as well as those of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Kieran Gibbs and Jack Wilshere.

In a summer of huge spending, how can it be “ideal” that, due to his contractual status, fees being discussed for Sanchez amount to half of what he would be worth, were his contract one year from expiring?

Moreover, how can it be “ideal” that, on January 1, Ozil could announce he has agreed to move to Bayern Munich — or anywhere else — on a free transfer at the end of the season?

How in any understanding of the word can it possibly be “ideal” that Arsenal could lose their two most valuable players for nothing in under 12 months’ time? — ESPN.