Times are changing at the Emirates Stadium with Arsenal finally putting the club’s future first.

Too long had the North Londoners been playing second fiddle to their own players, let alone rivals, with high-profile names demanding bumper deals or they would walk.

Early money men of Samir Nasri and former-captain Robin Van Persie moved on for pastures new at Manchester City and then United before it appeared the Gunners had got things on the right path.

That was until Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil’s contract dramas dragged the club back to where it fought to move away from, and now, just a year on, the drama is going strong once more but this time with Aaron Ramsey.

The Welsh midfielder is a club legend already thanks to his direct involvement in two FA Cup triumphs, yet has entered into the final year of his deal and looks set to walk for free in the summer after a parting gift from Ivan Gazidis was taken off the table by his successor.

Ivan Gazidis, the Gunner’s former long-standing CEO, was announced as leaving the club for Italian side AC Milan midway through September.

With a void to fill, Arsenal’s ex-chief commercial officer, Vinai Venkatesham, and ex-Barcelona man Raul Sanllehi were announced as the South African’s successors and immediately got to work laying down they’re markers.

One of the first acts of business by Sanllehi was to take the parting gift of the outgoing 54-year-old from Johannesburg by pulling the plug on Aaron Ramsey’s contract renewal.

Refusing to start his time in North London by signing on the dotted line to a hostage contract, where player power outweighed the board’s strength in negotiations.

One of the biggest questions over renewing Aaron Ramsey’s contract was where the player fits into Unai Emery’s side.

Ramsey’s best position has often been debated over, especially with Mesut Ozil a direct rival for the spot the former Cardiff City player desires the most.

It is near on impossible to perfectly implement a system that sees both players take to the field at the same time, with neither a wide or holding man.

Letting Ramsey go for free, having built the player to where he is, may look crazy but it signals a desire right from the top of the club to only have players that suit the system.

Who would have thought when Arsene Wenger was pictured with the English core of Arsenal that the last man standing would be Carl Jenkinson?

December 2012, Jenkinson and fellow Brits, Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere, Kieran Gibbs and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain put pen to paper on new contracts that were supposed to be the start of Arsenal’s next great squad.

Three of those five players in their own ways, though, have dispersed to other clubs.

Wilshere was let go last summer when his contract ran out, while Gibbs had already left for West Bromwich Albion and Oxlade-Chamberlain had moved to Merseyside to join Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool resurgence.

Now, if no new contract is placed back on the table for Ramsey, the last of the ‘English core’ will be Carl Jenkinson, a player the club has looked to shift on before but keeps coming back.