Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger pokes fun at Manchester City as he labels them 'good clients' over conveyor belt of his players they have bought
Arsene Wenger believes Arsenal are still financially weaker than Manchester City but insists that his club have moved on from the days when their best players would depart for the Etihad Stadium.
Arsenal lost five players to Manchester City between 2009 and 2014, as Bacary Sagna, Kolo Toure, Gael Clichy, Samir Nasri and Emmanuel Adebayor all left the Emirates.
Wenger also sold Robin van Persie to Manchester United during a period in which Arsenal struggled to cope with the financial strength of their Premier League rivals.
Arsene Wenger has joked about Manchester City being 'good clients' for Arsenal
Wenger has seen several big-name stars sold to City by the Gunners in recent years
Both Samir Nasri and Bacary Sagna left the Emirates to join Manchester City
City were good clients,' Wenger joked during his Friday press conference.
'We are (in a stronger position now) because today I feel we can give financial satisfaction and support ambitions and values that can make the players happy at this club.
'Before, perhaps the financial gap was too big a difference to keep our players. We could not compete, we had to sell players.
'It has reduced but it is still there.'
Wenger was reflecting on the club's improved financial situation amid a backdrop of uncertainty that surrounds the futures of Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil.
Arsenal are attempting to secure new deals for two players whose contacts expire in 2018 but are yet to find a breakthrough.
Sanchez is understood to have received an extraordinary £400,000-a-week offer from the Chinese Super League and is using it as leverage to up his wages. Arsenal's situation is not helped by the absence of financial regulations in the Chinese transfer market, which is distorting the usual expectations in the European dealings.
The Arsenal manager refused to comment on the situation.
'No. I don't know (about financial impact). If people want to go to China, they go to China,' he said.
'You can understand that I have completely different worries than China today ahead of the Manchester City game. Look, I think I closed that subject. I believe that there is nothing more to add to that.'
Emmanuel Adebayor left Arsenal to move to the Etihad for £25million in July 2009
Arsenal travel to City on Sunday afternoon as both sides attempt to claw back the gap that sets Chelsea apart at the top of the Premier League.
Arsenal are six points behind the leaders after a 2-1 defeat by Everton on Tuesday night, when opposing manager Ronald Koeman accused Wenger of always making defeats about the officials.
'In my job, people who don’t like losing - believe me - they don’t last a long time. And concerning the referee: yes, I don’t agree with the performance of the referee against us on Tuesday night but I didn’t say a word about it.
'Of course [the result disappointed me]. We looked in control and I believe we were in control even though we lost the game.
'In the second half we were completely in control of the game and we lost it on bad luck I believe because it was not a corner and some decisions when you watch the game again were questionable. The response to say, could we have won theme despite that and I have to say yes.
'That is where we have to be objective and analyse it. we can only master what we an influence ourselves. that is where maybe we have to analyse that well and not look for excuses, but really see where we failed to win the game.'
The Frenchman insists his club are now in a financial position to hold onto their top players
No comments: