Arsene Wenger will not enter the race for the most expensive stars in Europe this summer.
His Arsenal team played some of the best football of the season on Saturday when they hammered Aston Villa 4-0 to retain the FA Cup.
Talk inevitably turned to the Gunners’ title chances after such an impressive showing at Wembley.
Despite finishing 12 points behind Premier League winners Chelsea last season, Wenger insists his team can challenge for top spot next term.
New additions will be necessary but, as Wenger acknowledges, Arsenal’s rivals will spend big in the close season in order to cement their own pushes for the title.
The likes of Paul Pogba and Gareth Bale could be on the move, but Wenger will not bid for such stars as he believes they would not represent value for money.
“We would not get involved at that level for financial reasons,” the Arsenal manager said.
“People forget that for years we had to sell our best players and that was a very difficult period. That is the reality.
“Since we are buying again, we are slowly coming back to a more competitive level.
“You speak maybe about stratospheric numbers where we will not be involved.”
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As Wenger points out, after several years of budget restriction that was necessary to fund their new stadium, Arsenal have started to spend again in recent years.
Wenger paid a club-record £42.5million for Mesut Ozil and last summer he parted with £30million to sign Alexis Sanchez from Barcelona.
The Chilean showed his quality with a fine finish at Wembley on Saturday, but Wenger was quick to point out that Santi Cazorla, a £15million signing from Malaga three years ago, excelled, setting up Theo Walcott and Per Mertesacker for their goals.
Wenger has always maintained that splurging money is not always the answer and it seems nothing will persuade him to change his point of view.
“Today Santi Cazorla has been voted man of the match,” Wenger said.
“I think he has not cost £150million.
“(Francis) Coquelin was one of the best players on the pitch. You have to always look at the real quality of people.
“I am not against spending money. I have shown that recently. But I want a good rapport between price and quality. I’m always more focused on quality.”
Manchester City are thought to be the leading contender to land Pogba, who is valued at around £60million after an excellent year with Champions League finalists Juventus.
Manchester United, meanwhile, would be interested in signing Bale, but Real Madrid will want to recoup the £85.3million they spent on the Welshman two years ago if they decide to sell.
“Man City, Liverpool will buy. Tottenham will buy. I don’t know how good these teams will be,” Wenger added.
What Wenger is sure of is that his squad is stronger mentally than they were at the start of the season.
The Gunners won three of their opening eight games, but looked like genuine title challengers in the opening stages of 2015 before Chelsea closed out the title.
“Mentally we are stronger,” Wenger added. “I think we have seen that since January.
“We have made progress on the mental side and on mastering our games and on being less naive and better balanced and knowing what to do. It is intelligence.
“We have to show we want to do it (win the league). I feel that we have moved forward and people think always it’s about buying but it’s as well about cohesion and cohesion is a very important factor that is usually a bit underrated by people.
“We have to keep that cohesion and maybe add quality. But the quality we have to add is in short numbers. But the other teams - how good will Chelsea be? Who will they buy? I don’t know.”
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Key changes
Commission caps
For life insurance products with a savings component, Peter Hodgins of Clyde & Co said different caps apply to the saving and protection elements:
• For the saving component, a cap of 4.5 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 90 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• On the protection component, there is a cap of 10 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 160 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• Indemnity commission, the amount of commission that can be advanced to a product salesperson, can be 50 per cent of the annualised premium for the first year or 50 per cent of the total commissions on the policy calculated.
• The remaining commission after deduction of the indemnity commission is paid equally over the premium payment term.
• For pure protection products, which only offer a life insurance component, the maximum commission will be 10 per cent of the annualised premium multiplied by the length of the policy in years.
Disclosure
Customers must now be provided with a full illustration of the product they are buying to ensure they understand the potential returns on savings products as well as the effects of any charges. There is also a “free-look” period of 30 days, where insurers must provide a full refund if the buyer wishes to cancel the policy.
“The illustration should provide for at least two scenarios to illustrate the performance of the product,” said Mr Hodgins. “All illustrations are required to be signed by the customer.”
Another illustration must outline surrender charges to ensure they understand the costs of exiting a fixed-term product early.
Illustrations must also be kept updatedand insurers must provide information on the top five investment funds available annually, including at least five years' performance data.
“This may be segregated based on the risk appetite of the customer (in which case, the top five funds for each segment must be provided),” said Mr Hodgins.
Product providers must also disclose the ratio of protection benefit to savings benefits. If a protection benefit ratio is less than 10 per cent "the product must carry a warning stating that it has limited or no protection benefit" Mr Hodgins added.
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2017 The Square, Ruben Ostlund
2016 I, Daniel Blake, Ken Loach
2015 Dheepan, Jacques Audiard
2014 Winter Sleep (Kış Uykusu), Nuri Bilge Ceylan
2013 Blue is the Warmest Colour (La Vie d'Adèle: Chapitres 1 et 2), Abdellatif Kechiche, Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux
2012 Amour, Michael Haneke
2011 The Tree of Life, Terrence Malick
2010 Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Lung Bunmi Raluek Chat), Apichatpong Weerasethakul
2009 The White Ribbon (Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte), Michael Haneke
2008 The Class (Entre les murs), Laurent Cantet
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The Cairo Statement
1: Commit to countering all types of terrorism and extremism in all their manifestations
2: Denounce violence and the rhetoric of hatred
3: Adhere to the full compliance with the Riyadh accord of 2014 and the subsequent meeting and executive procedures approved in 2014 by the GCC
4: Comply with all recommendations of the Summit between the US and Muslim countries held in May 2017 in Saudi Arabia.
5: Refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of countries and of supporting rogue entities.
6: Carry out the responsibility of all the countries with the international community to counter all manifestations of extremism and terrorism that threaten international peace and security
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
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Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
How to turn your property into a holiday home
- Ensure decoration and styling – and portal photography – quality is high to achieve maximum rates.
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Year of birth: 1988
Place of birth: Baghdad
Education: PhD student and co-researcher at Greifswald University, Germany
Hobbies: Ping Pong, swimming, reading
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Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
Power: 181hp
Torque: 230Nm
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Starting price: Dh79,000
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