Wenger's financial frustration

3:01pm Sunday 6th July 2008

Arsene Wenger has admitted Arsenal will probably have to sell their star players every year for nearly another two decades.

The Arsenal boss is currently trying to persuade Emmanuel Adebayor - who is demanding a huge wage increase to stay - and Alexander Hleb not to follow Mathieu Flamini out of the club, but Wenger has revealed the ongoing cost of the move to the Emirates Stadium two years ago means, financially, his hands are tied.

"The strategy of the club is to sell every year and to buy less expensive players," he told the News of the World.

"We manage at Arsenal to maintain all our football ambitions - national and European - while having to free up, for 17 more years, an annual surplus of £24million to pay for our stadium," he added.

"The club's strategy is to favour the policy of youngsters ahead of stars and to count on the collective quality of our game."

Wenger is frustrated by the financial power players have over clubs.

"If I had the power to change anything basic in football, it would be the transfer system which makes mercenaries of players," he continued

"If they are bad ones, they stay, and if they are good, they think only of leaving.

"I have fought for them to earn a very good living, but I impose respect for their contract upon them."

Around Herefordshire