Arsene Wenger publicly admitted the fears of the Gunners' faithful.
He has admitted Arsenal will probably have to sell their star players every year for nearly another two decades.
The Arsenal boss is currently trying to persuade Emmanuel Adebayor and Alexander Hleb not to follow Mathieu Flamini out of the club.
Adebayor has made it clear only a huge wage increase will persuade him to stay, but Wenger has revealed the ongoing cost of the move to the Emirates Stadium two years ago means, financially, his hands are tied.
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"The strategy of the club is to sell every year and to buy less expensive players."
"We manage at Arsenal to maintain all our football ambitions—national and European—while having to free up—for 17 more years—an annual surplus of £24million to pay for our stadium.
"The club's strategy is to favour the policy of youngsters ahead of stars and to count on the collective quality of our game."
Wenger is frustrated by the financial power players have over clubs.
"If I had the power to change anything basic in football, it would be the transfer system which makes mercenaries of players," he continued.
"If they are bad ones, they stay and, if they are good, they think only of leaving."
"I have fought for them to earn a very good living, but I impose respect for their contract upon them."
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2 months ago
Hmm.. strange comments.. probably are true, but these are coming from NOTW, so I'll take them with a pinch of salt.
from 2 months ago
Fair enough..It takes a man to admit when somethings wrong..not so sure he needed to say it in public..probably making the fans realize dont expect them to go on a spending spree.
from 2 months ago
I'm not too sure that there are quite so many problems, Salaar. Wenger is not stupid to say "We'll let go of the better players and be left with poorer players" - that part has clearly been cooked up. It just sounds very un-Wenger like to say anything about finances of transfers. I don't think that he's frustrated. I just feel that he's playing mind-games with whoever he's competing with in terms of transfers.. otherwise, I can't see why he's come out and said anything so specific or so huge - if ever he said any of it they way they've quoted him.
from 2 months ago
"The strategy of the club is to sell every year and to buy less expensive players. " - they probably got Wenger drunk and got it out of him - other than that, I see no other way he'd say such things - or why any other manager would say for that matter.
2 months ago
strange but probably true i'd say after reading about the financial strain the club is under elsewhere. its too late for a universal salary cap isnt it, unless its contractual and club based i suppose.
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