Arsene Wenger admits Arsenal can’t rival riches of Manchester giants United and City
Gunners boss expects Alexis Sanchez to join procession from Emirates to the big-spenders and says gap is getting bigger
ARSENE WENGER has made the frank admission that Arsenal cannot compete with the financial muscle of the Manchester clubs.
And the Gunners boss claims the gap between football’s global elite and teams like Arsenal is widening all the time.
With Alexis Sanchez primed to move to Manchester United and become the Premier League’s highest-paid player on £500,000 per week, Wenger did little to alleviate fears among fans that the Londoners are again becoming a feeder club for the Mancunian giants.
Sanchez will join Robin van Persie, Emmanuel Adebayor, Samir Nasri, Bacary Sagna and Gael Clichy as players who have left Arsenal for Manchester — even though Wenger had once promised that moving to the Emirates would see the Gunners being able to compete in the transfer market with the richest clubs.
And during this, his most ‘disturbing and destabilising’ transfer window, Wenger has also bemoaned the fact a small elite of filthy-rich clubs are making football boring.
Asked whether it was true that Arsenal could not compete with either United or City, Wenger said: “Yes, financially — but that will not be an excuse big enough to not compete on the pitch.
“There’s no mystery that United and City have bigger financial resources. We did the maximum we could afford to do (with a contract offer for Sanchez).
“One day maybe I will come out on that. Today’s not the moment.
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“Modern football has created a kind of game where the best players are grouped to a small number of clubs. That makes football much more predictable.
“I would say the gap in financial resources between the biggest clubs and the smaller clubs has increased tremendously in the last five years.”
After United’s eye-popping offer to Sanchez, Wenger was asked whether we would soon see a footballer on a weekly wage of £1million.
“You cannot rule anything out,” he replied. “Who was the first player who was transferred for £1m? Trevor Francis. Today that (amount) looks ridiculous.”
Wenger refused to condemn United’s willingness to pay through the nose for the Chilean forward. He clearly respects their ‘old money’ more than the oil wealth of City and Chelsea.
He said: “I respect Manchester United because they generate the money they pay to the players from their own resources. It’s down to them to know how much they want to give to the player.
“Manchester United is a club that is very well managed financially and on the pitch. That’s why I don’t have any problems with the money they pay.”
Arsenal, he might have pointed out, have finished above United in the Premier League for four successive seasons, dating back to Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement.
It’s a fact that’s easy to obscure with Arsenal having failed to win in five matches heading into tomorrow’s clash with Crystal Palace — and with Sanchez following Van Persie in quitting the Gunners for Old Trafford.
But Wenger insisted: “We have many challenges ahead so we have to, very quickly, get over this transfer period because this window has been more disturbing than ever.
“Why? Because we have big players at the end of their contract and that is the first time it happens (in January) that we have such influential players close to the end of their contracts, so it has been more destabilising than ever.”
Wenger rejects the notion that Arsenal should have sold Sanchez last summer and also shrugs off too many comparisons with Van Persie’s 2012 move — insisting that the proposed swap with United’s Henrikh Mkhitaryan would sugar the pill of the Chilean’s exit.
He said: “When it was with Van Persie it was a similar case, in the fact that he had only one year to go (on his Arsenal contract).
“We took Van Persie when he played in the reserve team at Feyenoord and we did a lot of work with him.
“And when you get them to the top level and, after they leave, of course that is the most painful, when they do well for the other clubs.
“You know they will do well! But most of the time, it’s after long, patient work you have done with the players.
“But this time I would say our fans know Alexis will not extend his contract and they have accepted that idea.
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“The fact it will not be one-way traffic makes the whole thing a bit smoother, maybe a bit less disappointing.
“We lose a player but we could gain another player.”
Wenger is adamant Arsenal also need to focus attention on younger recruits.
He said: “You look at world-class players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Sanchez and their level of financial demand, you have to go younger because certainly those players are not affordable.
“What is important is that we are a club that can maybe give them a chance to play, more than many other clubs.”
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