I feel I need to respond in turn to the article by Tim Stillman (Silvestre Deal Was No Exception) written in response to an article I wrote, entitled Arsenal's Over 30's Dilemma.

I maintain that the Silvestre deal WAS an exception to the manager's policy on over 30's. The examples given by Tim were all players signed externally or given contract extensions before their 30th birthday. I don't doubt that AW signs 28 or 29 year olds on contracts which will take them into their 30's. However, he has never, to my understanding, given a player within the club a contract extension of more than one year, after they have turned 30 years old.

Furthermore, I do not believe he has signed a player over the age of 30 on a contract of longer than one year, other than Silvestre. To quote the Arsenal chairmen Peter Hill-Wood, when questioned on the future of William Gallas:

"Arsene has a policy with players who are aged 30 to offer them one-year extensions. I think it is proper for players of that age to get one-year deals. Then if they do well, they get another year.”

If Tim can find an example that opposes this statement, I would love to hear it.

And to draw a veil over this one, a final response to the above from Tim Stillman…

Tremayne, the reason there is no example of this for an internal player over 30 (or outfield player over 30 anyway) is because the contracts are quite deliberately drawn up to end at a player's 32nd birthday, it is by design, not by accident. Therefore, there has never been any reason to extend a player's terms at aged 30 - which I feel reinforces my point more. It was at the age of 32 that Begrkamp began signing one year rolling deals, it was at 32 that Pires' deal concluded. Even Henry, when he signed his four year extension in May 2006 would have been 32 upon his contract expiring (albeit only two months short of his 33rd).

As you allude, it is a club policy and that is why this is a repeat occurrence that the one year deals kick in at 32. If you are asking is Silvestre the only 30 year old player Arsene has signed, without looking it up I would say that he probably is. (Suker was signed at 31 and given a one year deal, which took him to the age of... you see where I'm going). But his terms do not in any way violate the club policy of offering players contracts until their 32nd birthdays before then offering them rolling one year deals. Can you give me an example of an Arsenal player aged 30 being given a one year contract?