By Richard Clarke
Many call the early part of the summer the "silly season"
given the wild speculation in the newspapers during this time of
the year. Arsène Wenger, however, has a different name -
fishing time.
It is a cast-iron certainty that Arsenal will be linked with any
number of players between now and the big kick-off in August. Only
a couple are likely to join and even then they may not be the names
trumpeted by the major headlines.
"The agents always get nervous in May and they calm down on
August 31," explained Wenger at his pre-match press
conference. "For them it's like going fishing. You're
allowed to fish now, you know?
"And after August 31 they don't feel that way any more
until January 1. It's like they take tranquilisers on September
1."
Of course, the major factor in many moves is money. The manager is
on record as saying Arsenal's contract offer to Mathieu Flamini
could not match Milan's. That was the one factor in the French
midfielder's decision to move to Italy. But in the worrying
global financial climate, Wenger is unsure that players' wages
can continue to rise or even be sustained at the current level.
"I don't know about that really," he said. "It
looks that wages that were good last year are not good any more
this year and that cycle was much lower a few years ago. Now, from
one year to the next, the wages go up, up, up, up.
"But the money available for the clubs is changing very
quickly and we are in a world where it is a little bit strange. The
whole world is suffering from deflation and we [in football] are in
a world of inflation. How long can that last? I don't
know."
