Wenger backs foreign policy
ARSENE WENGER insists Arsenal fans could not care less if there are no Englishmen in their table- topping team.The French boss says as long as the Gunners play quality football and win trophies that is what matters.
So, while the FA work on a strategy to restore battered English pride in the wake of the Euro 2008 exit, they can forget about WengerÂ’s help.
Wenger has been hammered in a PFA report called Meltdown — revealed in SunSport yesterday — for having too many foreign imports and denying Englishmen the opportunity to perform at Arsenal and gain vital top-level experience.
But Wenger insists his duty is to the 60,000 supporters who pack out The Emirates at £60-a-time — not the Three Lions.
Those fans, he argues, have no desire to substitute their foreign heroes who can land the ball on a sixpence for Englishmen who cannot land it inside the M25.
Best league in world
Wenger said: “When a guy sits in the stands at Arsenal and sees a fantastic cross and a volley, he doesn’t think ‘Eboue, where does he come from this guy?’ He either enjoys it or he doesn’t enjoy it.
“The most important thing for me is not to see where the players come from. What is important is the clubs do a lot for the game and that people who come and pay £60 enjoy what they see.
“You cannot want the best league in the world and only play English players.”
Wenger vigorously defends his foreign-biased transfer policy, arguing that Arsenal were priced out of the market for the very best English players. The likes of Frank Lampard went to Chelsea while Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand joined Manchester United
And, in the past, when the Gunners gambled on unproven Englishmen such as Francis Jeffers, now at Sheffield Wednesday, and Richard Wright, now the sub keeper at West Ham, the experiment was a failure.
Wenger said: “There was a conscious effort to try and buy English. But I accept that now, for example, you can point your finger at Arsenal because we have no English players who are really regular players.
“There were two reasons. The first one was financial because we were always competing with Manchester United and Chelsea, who had bigger financial potential.
“And, secondly, you do not produce enough, and have not produced in the last 10 years, enough English players of the top, top, top quality.
“You have produced some but they have gone to clubs with the biggest financial potential.
“At Arsenal you have to see how you can compete with Man United and Chelsea and it had to be in a different way.
“We had to try in our own way to be successful and this was to buy young players.
“I don’t look at the nationality when I buy a player. The question is are you a good football player, can you play the way I like to play it?
“If you are from England it is even better and we do have some top English players in Theo Walcott and Justin Hoyte.
“It is easier to keep an English footballer at Arsenal than an Argentinian, but we have had to make choices.”
Wenger is completely against an imposed quota system of English players which, he believes, would encourage mediocrity.
He said: “I prefer to tell a boy‘Listen my friend, you are not good enough. We are in a job that’s down to quality and I do not want to give you a job of just sitting on the bench because somebody in an office has decided that you need to be in the squad.’ It’s ridiculous and it’s unfair.
“It is better for that player to play in the second division, where he is one of the stronger players, than sitting on the bench at Arsenal and feeling he’s not good enough and with no respect from people around him.”
WengerÂ’s multi-national table- toppers, who hold a four-point lead over United at the top of the Premier League, travel to Middlesbrough tomorrow for the start of a run of eight games in 21 days.
They will again be without Cesc Fabregas, Alexander Hleb, Mathieu Flamini and Robin van Persie, although the Dutchman is set to resume training next week.
Wenger said: “It’s a massive challenge and we are still hungry. We used to dominate games in the second half but in the last two games we dropped our pace a little bit.
“We want to get back to playing the full 90 minutes because that is needed if you want to be consistent.”
