Just when Chelsea looked to be marching unhindered to their
third title in six years, along come Tottenham to remind us, on a
day of high drama at White Hart Lane and Old Trafford, of
football’s capacity for the gloriously unpredictable.
And few will have enjoyed it more than Arsene Wenger as he
prepares his Arsenal ide for their match at Wigan Athletic
today, suddenly handed a championship lifeline by the
north London rivals he was cursing, rather than thanking, just a
few nights earlier following their own derby defeat.
His pleasure will be all the sweeter as he remains a firm
opponent of the kind of spending that has taken Chelsea to the top
of the table.
In fact, Wenger thinks Chelsea should be stopped from what he
sees as buying titles.
The Stamford Bridge club’s newly released accounts reveal that
they spent a staggering £142.6million on players salaries last
year, the highest sum in English football history.
Out of reach: Wenger says Chelsea spending is
exorbitant
It is over £20m more than Manchester United’s playing budget and
£40m more than Arsenal’s. ‘What is not normal is not our wages
bill, but their wages bill,’ said Wenger, who resents Chelsea being
able to continue to splash out more than his club — and United —
despite not bringing in the same revenue.
‘That should not be allowed.’ Indeed, the Arsenal manager
believes the game’s governing bodies should legislate to
prevent Chelsea spending the record sums on wages that could carry
them to the Premier League and FA Cup Double.
Chelsea and their fans will be shocked by Wenger’s comments.
After all the big spending in the early years of Roman Abramovich’s
ownership, the club have been positively frugal by comparison this
season as the Russian seeks to rein in the spending.
Only Yuri Zhirkov and Daniel Sturridge arrived this season, at a
cost of £23m — just £4m more than United paid for Antonio Valencia
and Gabriel Obertan and which does not begin to compare with the
£80m Real Madrid forked out for Cristiano Ronaldo alone.
Expenditure: Zhirkov (right) cost £18m
But the belief that English football at the top level is
impoverished as a result of the recession is undermined, not just
by Manchester City’s spending power but also by Chelsea’s wage
bill.
Wenger’s attack on Chelsea and lament for the financial
imbalance may have something to do with his frustration at his
perception, before yesterday’s new (slim) hope, that his side had
fallen short in a trophy campaign for a fifth season in a row. It
also had much to do with his chagrin at the authorities failing to
act quickly to prevent
what he sees as unfair spending.
New UEFA rules have been drawn up aimed at preventing clubs
accumulating debt while still spending heavily, which is why
Abramovich converted many of his loans to Chelsea into equity and
also one reason why Liverpool’s indebted co-owners, George Gillett
and Tom Hicks, are seeking a new buyer.
Recently, however, the big clubs of Europe persuaded the
governing body to delay implementing the rules from 2012 to 2015.
Wenger turned 60 this season. Time is slipping away for him.
Dredging up defiance after recent setbacks, he insists, however,
that his club can
compete on the field with Chelsea and big-spenders United, despite
having lost twice to both this season, and even surpass them next
season.
‘We cannot compete for wages but I believe we can realistically
compete on the pitch,’ he added. ‘I’m convinced of that. As well,
we can overcome them. We were for a while not investing, maybe
because we were building the stadium. But I think now our financial
situation is much stronger and that we will be capable of buying
the players we need to buy.
‘Not all the top players can go to Chelsea. There are top
players Chelsea don’t want to
buy who are still good enough for us.’
New arrival: Chamakh
Bordeaux striker Marouane Chamakh will be the first Arsenal
signing of the summer,
with Wenger admitting that he needs to buy.
However, he rebuts criticism from former England manager Glenn
Hoddle, a Wenger
devotee, that Arsenal are developing a reputation for being forever
a team for the future.
Wenger also cites injuries as a crucial factor in his team’s
capitulation to Barcelona and Tottenham over the past
fortnight.
‘We have played the last 10 years in the Champions League so I
don’t call that teams for the future,’ he said. ‘If you go
into the final sprint of the season without four or five of your
best players, you are going to struggle. If you take Messi and Xavi
out of Barcelona when they go into March, I would like to see how
they do.’
Wenger does concede that next season will be ‘a decisive year’
for his team, although he says that even another campaign without
silverware would not spell disaster for the club.
‘This club have never been in a stronger situation,’ he added.
‘The club have a new stadium, fantastic training facilities, are in
a strong financial situation and have a very young team who are
playing at the top. What can happen to the club?’
But it could also be a decisive year for Wenger, with both Stan
Kroenke and Alisher Usmanov pondering a full takeover.
‘I am like everybody. I act every day like I will stay my whole
life here knowing that it
can stop as well,’ he said. ‘It will be the final year of my
contract. I will give the maximum I can for this club because,
first of all, it’s my nature and I want to do well for the
club.
‘After, I don’t think the future of this club is linked with me.
All the ingredients are here to be very successful and we will
be.’
There is in Wenger’s voice a wistfulness that suggests
weariness, however, despite all the positive talk he delivers.
More twists like yesterday and a summer of refreshment might
help, but with the authorities, especially the market-driven
Premier League, unlikely to heed his plea for
financial regulation, could it be that the Frenchman is preparing
to give up the unequal struggle of seeking to mix it with the money
men he so resents?