Losing a top player on a free transfer was once identified as pure mismanagement: a boardroom-level failure of planning, negotiation and foresight triggering ire among fans. Arsenal are one club to face heavy criticism in this way, so much so that in October 2018, the club's then-newly installed director of football, Raul Sanllehi, drew a line in the sand.
"I believe that a player's contract should never go to the last year, as a policy," he said. "But I don't think I am inventing the wheel. Anybody could agree on that. Normally the contracts of the players are for five years.