Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil will not commit future to Arsenal, says Gunners legend Martin Keown

Arsenal legend Martin Keown believes the Emirates star duo of Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil will not commit their futures to the Gunners. He has pinpointed Arsene Wenger's contract situation at the club as the reason behind the pair's decision against signing new deals.

The Frenchman's contract will expire at the end of the season and has not yet signed an extension at the club. Sanchez and Ozil's current deal will run down in 2018. According to The Sun, the former La Liga stars are demanding close to £290,000-a-week ($359,339 per week), which would see them earn wages of Paul Pogba at Manchester United.

Wenger's future at Arsenal remains uncertain as he admitted that the decision over his future will be taken before the end of the 2016/17 season. Keown claims the Gunners boss' failure to put pen to paper has been the major factor for Arsenal to convince the Chilean international and the World Cup winner to sign an extension at the Emirates.

"There are some big decisions to be made over the next couple of years, and to me, it looks as though Arsenal's star pair won't commit their futures to the club," Keown told the Daily Mail.

"The difficulty for Arsenal right now is that ordinarily Arsene Wenger would be sitting on a long-term deal, which gives more stability to the team and means players don't have an extra reason not to commit to a new contract,"

"Right now, Sanchez and Ozil might be keeping an eye Wenger's contract, which expires at the end of the season, and stalling over their new deals because of this. Wenger brought them both to the club so he will have been a big part of the reason they decided to sign in the first place.

"Wenger has a global appeal that shouldn't be overlooked, and if he decides to leave at the end of the season Arsenal might have to convince Sanchez and Ozil to sign new deals with a new manager at the club, which could be a problem."

The former England international, who played under Wenger at Arsenal believes the north London club could bag them above £80m.

"Wenger has said he'd rather lose them both for nothing at the ends of their contracts than sell them now, but this is a huge gamble given that their combined transfer value would exceed £80million," he said.