by Nia Griffiths

Ray Parlour spoke to TalkSport recently and revealed something entirely predictable about Arsene Wenger’s transfer window ethos.

The Arsenal legend said, “Arsene Wenger always used to say ‘why should I pay big when I can get the same sort of player for £5-6 million less?’”

Although I’m willing to concede Parlour knows more than me, and I would’ve agreed with his revelation a few seasons ago – I’m sure this was what he said at one point – in the last couple of years, things have shifted.

This is no coincidence. In fact, it’s entirely to do with Wenger simply having the money available to him to spend now. Before, due to paying off the Emirates, we were scrimping and saving, and Wenger was responsible for keeping the club financially afloat.

Now he’s done this, it seems the Frenchman has very few qualms about spending. The trasnfer of Mesut Ozil, who cost over £42m and Alexis Sanchez, who apparently cost £35m, shows this.

Although, this doesn’t necessarily mean he’s going to be running out and spending hundreds of millions on Lionel Messi, I do think it’s allowed him to relax and a bit and he can be a little more open when it comes to approaching big name players.