Having spent all summer doggedly protecting the contract they hold with Cesc Fábregas, Arsenal must now turn their attention to the arrangement they have with their manager. Arsène Wenger's contract finishes at the end of the coming season, and he has admitted that if he is ever going to seek a change of club scene, it will be now or never.
"I am at the stage where if I extend my contract, it means I will finish my career at club level at Arsenal," he told Observer Sport. "If I go for a different challenge – I have been offered many challenges you know – it has to be now.
"That's a decision I have to make. But basically, I have no desire to change from here. I have one more year, and we are maybe thinking about extending it."
At regular times during the 14 years he has spent in north London, he has been courted by some of the grandest names in football, including Barcelona and Real Madrid. He would not consider such a position for less than a minimum three‑ or four‑year period, so the expiry of his current contract represents the last opportunity to try his hand elsewhere.
Although his preference is to finish his day-to-day managerial career with Arsenal, he is aware that the years are passing and expects to step down from the rigours of commanding a top‑level club at 65. Wenger will be 61 in October and, unless his health and energy levels surprise him in the years to come, a less stressful position is on the cards in four years' time. "I've set myself a target until 65 and then I will certainly make a move to some different job, unless I still feel like I feel today."
Wenger's enthusiasm for the challenge remains intense, and his passion for the English game continues to burn. But he has a warning for those running football in England that they are in danger of jeopardising the success of the Premier League by bringing in rules, such as those regarding new squad limits and homegrown quotas, designed to help the national team.
"England has to make a decision: Is the Premier League here to prepare the English national team to be stronger or is the Premier League here to be the strongest football product in the world? They try at the moment to combine the two, to do both."
However, Wenger is concerned that by doing so they might actually do neither well enough. "That's the danger for English football at the moment," he said.
"They have really to make a clear statement. Either say: 'OK, we want to protect the English national team, we kick the foreign players out,' but you will not have the strongest league in the world. Or say: 'We go for the strongest league in the world' – they have the opportunity to do it, because all the big rich people in the world are buying the clubs. They can make something exceptional. At the World Cup I realised how popular the Premier League is and nobody in England realises it. It is hugely, unbelievably popular.
"There is a huge transformation in the game at the moment and we sit in England and still see our traditional Arsenal, Man United, Chelsea, but it is not like that any more."