The former Arsenal manger was on duty for Bein Sports today and he signalled out some of the players that he regretted selling while at the North London Club, that he had to sell in order to balance the books.
“Many times, because you always have to manage the club with the financial potential that you have and respect the financial constraints.” says Arsene Wenger
Richard Keys then asked whether Arsenal would “have gone bust” if Wenger didn’t authorise the sales of their best players.
“Of course,” Wenger explained.
“Every year. We had to pay the stadium back at the time, we needed to be in the top four and we needed to pay our mortgage back.”
Arsène Wenger explains how he had to part with a big player every season in order for his side to make the move to the Emirates Stadium & reveals some of the players he wished he had kept at Arsenal. #beINPL #LEILIV
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“I accepted this challenge and I think it’s a period where I worked the most efficient and the best for the club,” Wenger explained.
“I’ve told you before it’s what you leave behind that’s important.
“The stadium is paid, Arsenal can invest money and hopefully win championships again.”
Arsene Wenger would loved to have kept Cesc Fabregas when asked by Keys if there was one player he’d have loved to not have sold.
“I would say at the start when I arrived, the players I sold had at least given a longer period to the club like Patrick Vieira, like Thierry Henry, who had stayed eight, nine years at the club,” Wenger stated.
“They’d given their best to the club. Of course, you’d like to keep them but I could understand it.
“They told me ‘we have a young team now, we can’t win a championship with a young team, I want to go and finish my career by winning.’ ”