Arsene Wenger met with the press on Friday morning ahead of the game against Middlesbrough on Monday night and he was, of course, asked about the reports that the club has offered Alexis Sanchez £300pw.

It was an interesting exchange that really needed to be watched to get the full sense of what was going on. His words did not seem to tell the whole story.

When the question was asked, Wenger looked to the sky saying “Let me calculate, how much is that a year?” Jokes followed between him and the reporter as the journalist replied “more than me” and Wenger said that was “outrageous”.

The question then moved on without Wenger actually giving an answer and he could have carried on without giving one.

But he volunteered an answer anyway.

 “First of all, I cannot confirm that we have offered that,” Wenger said.

“Secondly we will do as always. We have to consider our financial potential to sustain the wages for the whole squad.

“What is for sure that what is paid per week today was 20 years ago was per year.

“Will that continue to go up? I don’t know. I am always tempted to say ‘no’, but I was always wrong on that front.”

As you can see, that is certainly not a denial.

His first response, when he joked about making a calculation seemed, to me, on first viewing, to hint that an offer has indeed been made.

But, like Arsene, I could be completely wrong on that front.