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Arsenal’s tills are ringing louder than any other club in world football.. yet Wenger says losing Sanchez proves they cannot compete with the rest

ARSENE WENGER admits the Alexis Sanchez transfer saga proves Arsenal cannot compete with football’s super powers.

Wenger (below with Sanchez) confessed his club are no longer in the market for the biggest stars because they are in a lower league financially. The Gunners manager’s honesty will not make it any easier for fans to accept after they were sold a dream that moving to the Emirates stadium would help them compete for trophies. But Manchester United get Arsenal’s best player, Arsenal get United’s castoffs – with Henrikh Mkhitaryan moving the other way – and it feels like the Gunners are going backwards. And to rub salt in the wounds, UEFA this week published a report showing Arsenal earn more money per fan through the turnstiles than any club in world football. But Wenger said they cannot match the wages or transfer fees that Manchester United and City pay and even suggested the first £1million-aweek contract will not be too far away. “Financially, yes. That doesn’t mean you cannot compete on the pitch,” he added. “That will not be an excuse big enough to not compete on the pitch. Of course there’s no mystery that United and City have bigger financial resources.

“You look at world-class players now, Ronaldo, Neymar, Sanchez, their level of financial demands and the level of their costs, certainly these players are not affordable. You have to go younger.

“It is more difficult nowadays because the competition is everywhere, it is very big. What is important today is that we are the club that can maybe give younger players a chance, more than many other clubs.

“Modern football has created a kind of game where the best players in the

We have to quickly get over this transfer period. It’s been more disturbing than ever

game are grouped to a small number of clubs. That makes football much more predictable. The gap in financial resources between the biggest and smaller clubs has increased tremendously in the last five years.”

Wenger admitting that Arsenal are a nursery club for developing players may go down badly with fans still bruised from the sale of Robin van Persie to United for £24m in 2012.

Their best player was sold to one of their biggest rivals because he was in the final year of his contract, but it was a deal with the devil for some fans who have never forgiven Wenger.

He admits this window has been “more disturbing and destabilising than ever” because of the Sanchez saga, but also insisted that fans are more understanding now than they were about selling Van Persie, who effectively won United the title.

Wenger said: “I would say our fans know Alexis will not extend his contract and they have accepted that idea – and the fact it will not be oneway traffic it will be other-way traffic as well and so that makes the whole thing a bit smoother, maybe. A bit less disappointing.

“We have to very quickly get over this transfer period because for us especially this period has been more disturbing than ever.

“Why? Because we have big players at the end of their contract and that is the first time that it happens, that we have such influential players close to the end of their contracts and it has been more destabilising than ever.

“I would only let him go if somebody else replaces him and it was not possible in the summer. It happened very late on the last day of the transfer market.”

Arsenal turned down a last-minute £60m offer from Manchester City for Sanchez last summer because they could not get a deal done in time for Monaco’s Thomas Lemar.

Now they hope that Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will make up for the loss of Sanchez. They are big players, but it might take both of them to fill that void.

So, will Arsenal emerge from the transfer window stronger?

“The target is yes, but only the future will tell,” said Wenger.

History will not fill Arsenal fans with optimism.