Wenger blasts 'trafficking' claims

Gunners boss denies club poaches youngsters

By Thomas Zocher   Last updated: 17th September 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Wenger blasts 'trafficking' claims

Wenger: Far from happy

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Arsene Wenger has blasted Karl-Heinz Rummenigge's claims that the youngsters he brings to Arsenal amounts to 'child trafficking'.

The Gunners boss throughout his tenure has preferred to snap up youngsters and nurture the talent, rather than buying the finished article.

Rummenigge claimed Arsenal sign 'hosts' of players from France among other places in order to find the stars of the future.

However, Wenger says in reality the Gunners only sign up to three youngsters per season with the intention of giving them a first-team chance further down the line.

Although Rummenigge's comments were made earlier this year, Wenger is still surprised by the nature and the strength of his argument.

Aggressive

"I am surprised about such an aggressive statement that has nothing to do with reality," the French tactician told Spiegel Magazine.

"We are only signing two, three players and if we are signing teenagers then we are handing them a real opportunity. You cannot say that about Bayern. I am well dismayed about such nonsense.

"What is going to happen if we are not allowed to sign Under-18 players any longer? There'll be an agent, with some from Africa or South America under contract, buying a small club in which these youngsters are going to play then. He then sells them as soon as they turn 18 years of age. The transfer money is going to end up in the agent's pocket from the club.

"The transfer money gained from the transfer is going to end up right in the pocket of that agent via the small club."

Support

Wenger admits he actually supports Fifa and Uefa's new initiatives after Chelsea were banned from signing players for the next two transfer windows for their acquisition of Gael Kakuta.

It has been suggested clubs offer financial incentives to the youngster's parents in order to help secure his signature, but Wenger condones that sort of behaviour labelling it 'financial doping'.

"It's great to see them taking care of the moral issues of this business. I even support Michel Platini in his attempts against what I regard as financial doping.

"The world has changed completely. I admit, sometimes it is definitely absolutely weird to see coincidences taking place. For example, there's an extremely talented youngster and his parents accidentally want to move to London.

"But, you know, if children have a special sort of talent, no matter if it is literature, music or football, parents always want to have the best education available to them. And we are going to help these youngsters make the dreams come true then."

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