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Wenger said that the move to the Emirates Stadium impacted the club financially, limiting their ability to attract the best players to keep them competitive.
Legendary Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has revealed the reasons behind why Arsenal took nearly two decades to start competing and challenging for the Premier League title again.
Speaking to Bein Sports on Saturday evening, Wenger said that the move to the Emirates Stadium impacted the club financially, limiting their ability to attract the best players to keep them competitive.
“(The move to the Emirates) cost 200 million more than we expected it to be,” he said, “ I must say that we were locked (in) and could spend only 50 percent of the turnover on wages,” he added.
“For instance, if we made 500 million, we could only dedicate 250 million to wages, so we always had to sell our best players because the best players wanted money.”
The French manager revealed the reason the Emirates Stadium had to be built.
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09:30 - 14.05.2023
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“We are treating it as a normal match, just like we have the other matches of the season, which is why we are on top.”
“Arsenal at the time had 38,000 (match going fans) and over 40,000 on the waiting list. How could you turn down the opportunity for people to come watch games?”
Wenger had opportunities to leave Arsenal for bigger teams after achieving sustained success with the club in his first 10 years in charge, but decided to “stay loyal” to the values and project beforehand.
“I turned down Juventus, Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, the England National team and the French national team but at the end of the day, I did what was important for me in my life.
“I am thankful for having committed to that because it is funny today that a lot of people come to see me and say ‘thank you for what you have done for the club’ because they now understand that was my priority.
“I believe that Arsenal is respected all over the world because one of the values that the club (has) came through ( that project).
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“They wanted me to sign at that period for five years. I always felt there was something special about Arsenal that I wanted to defend and represent. In my mind loyalty is very important. You cannot ask for players to be loyal if he jumps into the first offer he gets.
“We wanted technical stability and we were doing well. We moved out in 2006. We started to speak about the new stadium in 2002 and 2003 to find a site.
“I accepted that because I was working-in my head- for something that is bigger than me and I had to do well. Despite that, we spent 20 years in the top four.If you look at clubs in England that do that now, there is none. Only Ferguson stayed (At Man United) for that period at his club.
From 2006, Arsenal had to sell their biggest players to pay off stadium debts. Players like Thierr Henry, Emmanuel Adebayor, Robin Van Persie, Cesc Fabregas, Alex Song, Samir Nasri and Alexander Hleb were sold for profits in order to help raise the money.
“We had to sell the players and buy cheaper. It was funny we kept the same percentage of wins but could not win the big games anymore.
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“I wanted to do what was best for the club. I will always find ways to win games. Of course it became more difficult (without big players to compete) but overall, we won many games.”
Arsenal are in a title challenge for the first time since 2007/08 under new manager Mikel Arteta, and although their chances of delivering a 14th league title were dented by a patchy run of form in April, could still win it should they win all their remaining games and hope for favorable circumstances elsewhere, as the run-in is now in Manchester City’s hands.
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