London: Arsene Wenger has warned Arsenal fans not to take a marquee signing for granted this summer, citing Francis Coquelin as an example of why a price tag is not everything in modern football.
For many years, and especially when the club were still paying off the money they borrowed to build the Emirates Stadium, the Frenchman was one of the most parsimonious managers in the European elite. That changed in September 2013, when Wenger sanctioned the £42.4 million (Dh241.9 million) purchase of Germany playmaker Mesut Ozil from Real Madrid, having famously failed to land Luis Suarez from Liverpool for £40,000,001.
Last summer, Alexis Sanchez arrived from Barcelona for £35 million and already Arsenal have been linked with Liverpool’s unsettled forward Raheem Sterling, who may well cost £40 million, plus Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech and Manchester City’s James Milner.
Wenger refused to rule out a move for any of them, and confirmed that he did not feel Milner, who will soon be a free agent, was too old at 29 to be handed a costly long-term deal. But the Arsenal manager also warned that he reserved the right to promote through the ranks, as he did with defensive midfielder Coquelin in December, when he recalled the 24-year-old Frenchman from a loan spell at Charlton Athletic.
“The world has changed,” Wenger said. “The appreciation today of the quality of a player is just down to the money you spend. If we had bought Coquelin at Christmas for £40 million, everyone would say ‘What a signing’. I am sorry he didn’t cost any money, he is still a good player.”
Coquelin was due to make his 29th Arsenal appearance of the season at home to Sunderland on Wednesday night.
Meanwhile, Wenger, one of the staunchest supporters of Financial Fair Play regulations, has had to admit defeat after Uefa president Michel Platini revealed the rules were to be relaxed over the summer.
Wenger has always insisted clubs should be forced to live within their means but believes European football’s governing body is about to bow to pressure exerted by oligarch club owners.
“I got the noises internally,” the Frenchman said. “I could see it coming: resistance in France and many countries, in Italy for example, where people want to sell their clubs. If Milan is for sale, Roma is for sale, people who want to invest money want to make sure they can do what they want with their own money.
“And Uefa might be under threat as well. All these people, once they go together say, ‘Look, we are a force, let us do what we want or we move away’. That is certainly the fear.”
Opponents of FFP argue that the regulations take the romance out of football, making it much more difficult for a small club to realise the dream of moving up the divisions and into the Champions League, while also giving added protection to the clubs established among the elite.
Wenger used the north London borough in which he lives to explain why he never bought into that idea. “If somebody comes in and goes tomorrow to Totteridge — I am from Totteridge, but it would not be me — and says, ‘I want to create a world-class team’ and puts the money in, after he moves away, Totteridge goes down again,” he said.
“We have to protect the clubs to live with their own resources.
“I have no problem to lose the battle. I just fought for what looks to me to be logical: that any business, to have continuity, should live with the resources that it creates. If you open any shop tomorrow, you do not expect your neighbour to come in and say, ‘I help you and give you some money’ even if it doesn’t work.”
