Wenger defends spending policy

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has strongly defended his spending policy at the club. On Friday, the Gunners announced record pre-tax profits of £56million for the year ended 31 May, 2010.Such positive financial figures have led to question marks over Wenger's movement in the recent summer transfer window.Wenger signed Laurent Koscielny, Sebastien Squillaci and Marouane Chamakh, but failed to bolster his goalkeeping options after seeing a bid turned down for Fulham's Mark Schwarzer.The French coach, though, has hit back at the criticism, stating: "The job of a manager is not to spend as much money as possible."To get (Marouane) Chamakh for free - instead of getting credit you get accused for getting him for free, 'Why did you not spend £20m for him?'"If I bought him two years ago for £20m it's OK. But when you get him for free it's, 'Oh, he didn't spend money'."Wenger went on to point towards the club's development of players from a young age, insisting that spending big is not always the answer.He said: "If I go out and buy players then Jack Wilshere doesn't come through."So you cannot have everything and I know that and I'm long enough in the job to have a development policy to educate the players."Nobody else in the world develops as many players as this club."Take the list of players who started here. Johan Djourou, where has he started? Here. Philippe Senderos - where did he start? Gael Clichy, Kieran Gibbs, Cesc Fabregas, Alex Song? All here."Abou Diaby has basically never played before at the top level before here. Neither had Ashley Cole."If you go back it's unbelievable the number of players who started at Arsenal."You cannot buy every time you have an injured player."

Source: Team_Talk