We are not buying our way up: Wenger

LONDON — Arsene Wenger has defended his transfer policy at Arsenal and pointed to his record of developing players as proof that the club are not attempting to buy the Premier League title.

Jose Mourinho, the Chelsea manager, has suggested that Wenger has become a cheque book manager in recent years, with the £42.5 million (S$90 million) club-record signing of Mesut Ozil and the £35 million purchase of Alexis Sanchez.

Arsenal have spent less money than Chelsea since Mourinho’s return to Stamford Bridge in 2013, but the Blues have recouped far more in player sales.

“We spend when we think we have to spend and do not listen too much to what people think or say. We just try to make the right decisions,” said Wenger. “When you have the money available, we spend it. When we don’t have it, we don’t spend the money we haven’t got. You must not listen too much to what people say because sometimes in the same week I get two different reproaches.

“One is that I don’t spend too much and another is I spend too much. If you want to create success — which we want desperately — you must focus on what happens inside, just try to do as well as we can and believe in the football we want to play and play it as well as we can, and let other people talk.”

While Wenger admits Arsenal have been able to spend over the past couple of years, he insists that no club have a better record of bringing through their own players than Arsenal. Chelsea are hoping teenager Ruben Loftus-Cheek can make a permanent first-team breakthrough as they still wait for a home-grown player to follow the example of John Terry, the captain.

“I believe that, one day, if you make real statistics of the players we have developed here and you compare them to all the other clubs you would be surprised,” added Wenger.

Arsenal’s only signing this summer is Petr Cech from Chelsea for £10 million, although Wenger has not ruled out spending more money before the transfer window shuts with Juventus striker Fernando Llorente understood to have been offered to the Gunners. Cech, 33, will face his former club in the Community Shield match at Wembley on Sunday and Wenger believes the goalkeeper can still improve.

“Petr Cech was already at the top (when he joined Arsenal). From his experience, he will improve still. He’s at the stage of his career where a goalkeeper can be at his peak,” said Wenger. In terms of how Cech will benefit the Arsenal team, Wenger said: “He can improve the level of communication at the back and bring his experience to the defence, and bring a calmness as well in some heated situations. I think his calmness will be vital.”

Arsenal finished 12 points behind Premier League champions Chelsea last season, but Wenger believes that his side can bridge that gap and mount a serious title challenge this term.

“If I didn’t think that, then it would mean we were standing still,” he said. “We want to improve, the difficulty for us is always to know how much. It’s difficult to know how much better our opponents will be.

“Let’s not forget that Chelsea won the championship with a comfortable distance, so we have to make our way up. There was still a gap between them and the others, teams like Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool have all made big efforts in the market and it’s very difficult at the moment to speculate on these teams.

“You cannot say that we finished third in the League and that we have no chance at all. The desire is to improve and move up there to fight for the championship.” THE DAILY TELEGRAPH