Arsenal fans will be waking up to a surprise this morning after news emerged last night that manager Arsene Wenger has the financial backing to break the club’s transfer record this summer, and that they could buy almost any player.
The news comes from Gunners director Lord Harris, who stated that after a period of financing the Emirates Stadium, the money is now available to buy almost any player in the world. In an interview with The Daily Mail, Lord Harris had plenty to say on the north London club.
“Money was tight when we moved to the Emirates but it’s a lot freer now.” said Harris.
“We could go into the market and probably buy any player in the world, apart from half a dozen who are un-buyable. In the accounts, there’s over £200 million in the bank. You could say to Arsene we’ve got no money and he wouldn’t worry, or you could give him £100m and he might not spend it.”
The 72-year-old then spoke about the Gunners’ potential signings.
“At the moment there are no plans to sign anyone, unless he finds a real superstar like Mesut Ozil or Alexis Sanchez. He’s looking for one of those but there aren’t many available. We would back him to break the club’s transfer record. If he wanted the man, he could have him. Apart from Messi and Ronaldo, he could have any player. We will probably have to break the club record to get the man he wants.”
“We get a list of the players that Wenger wants, on the list is a centre forward, but I’m not going to tell you who he is. You’ve got to get the other team to want to sell him, but I think he wants to come. It basically comes down to whether the other team can find a superstar to replace him, because they don’t have to sell.”
“He also wanted a top goalie, so we went out and got him. John Terry said that Cech will gain us 15 points a year, which would have won us the league last season. Since Jens Lehmann or David Seaman, we’ve not really had a world-class goalie. We made enquiries about Cech last summer but Chelsea couldn’t sell him because they didn’t know how Courtois was going to settle in.”
However when asked about the possibility of Arsenal signing Raheem Sterling before City wrapped up the £49m deal, Harris responded saying he was pleased his side didn’t do the business.
“Sterling is a very, very good player but I’m very pleased Arsenal didn’t sign him.” said Lord Harris.
“He’s got a lot to learn. They were looking at him and the way he treated Liverpool wasn’t good. Arsene does a lot of work on the players before they get to us and he doesn’t take any nonsense.”
Speaking about the boss, Lord Harris believes Wenger still has a lot of time left at Arsenal to further improve his glistening record.
“I see no reason why Arsene shouldn’t stay beyond his contact, if he wants to. I’m sure we will want him to stay, because he’s a good manager and the players respect him. Two or three years ago, when the crowd came after him, you could tell he was concerned but I wouldn’t say he came close to leaving. He’s exactly the same as what you see in the media – bright, determined and very conscientious about his players. He’s so fit and motivated that we hope he stays longer.”
It wouldn’t be right if the businessman didn’t take a dig at rivals Tottenham.
“It’s not all about spending,” said Lord Harris. “If you look at Tottenham, they sold a player for £80m and spent £110m and ended up worse off. Generally, Arsene doesn’t think you should fetch more than three first-team players in one season because it takes too long for them to link up. He knows how to produce players, too – we’ve got four or five very good youngsters who are coming through.”
“We’ve got a fantastic owner in Stan, who likes Arsene and lets you run the club. He wants to know the numbers and comes to every board meeting. We like to call it ‘The Arsenal Way’; even through our bad years, we always played nice football. Now, with a bit of luck around injuries, I think we can challenge strongly for the Premier League and the Champions League.”
[All quotes used in this article are sourced from The Daily Mail]
Wenger has been Arsenal manager for nearly 20 years, and in that time has led the club to three Premier League titles and five FA Cup wins. The Gunners went nine years without winning a trophy before lifting the FA Cup in 2014 and 2015.