‘We must always take care of our values’

Arsène Wenger says it is important for us to “take care of our values” when negotiating new deals with first-team players.

A number of stars, including Alexis and Mesut Ozil, will only have a year remaining on their contracts in the summer, and the manager revealed how he will approach any talks that take place.

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“Arsenal is a big club,” Wenger said. “It is not one or two players who will make the difference to the club. The importance is that we are today in a financial position that is strong, that was not the case before.

“That means as well we are in a position where we can plan our future, and do what we want to do. What is important is always to take care of the values of the club, and the identity of the club, and not to depend too much on one or two players. The history of Arsenal is bigger than that.

“In every single club, at some stage, they have lost big players. Or they had big players without knowing. Or things like that happened everywhere. Every club is full of regrets and full of decisions. What matters is the globality of the decisions.

“The self-esteem is linked with the values that the club stands for,” the manager added. “Of course, the self-esteem, or the identity that the press has of the club, is not exactly the same that you have inside the club.

“You could say the ‘prestige’, more than the self-esteem, is linked with the players. But I think it is more down to the consistency of the quality, or the way the team plays football.”