Arsenal’s Wenger admits ‘I maybe brought too many experienced players here’ in Wednesday loss

Arsenal were blown away by Sheffield Wednesday in the League Cup, but manager Arsene Wenger insists he played too many of his top names.

Wenger’s men were second best throughout a 3-0 defeat at Hillsborough and the manager’s wait for a first League Cup of his 19-year reign goes on as goals from Ross Wallace, Lucas Joao and Sam Hutchinson gave Championship side Wednesday a worthy win.

But Arsenal’s defeat came at an even bigger cost as they lost England internationals Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott to injuries in the first 20 minutes, with the pair set for scans on muscle injuries in the next 48 hours.

It was far from an inexperienced side that Wenger fielded, with Petr Cech, Per Mertesacker, Mathieu Debuchy, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Olivier Giroud all named in the starting XI and he was left to rue his selection.

“I have to manage the workload of the players and at the end of the day I still think I maybe brought too many experienced players here,” he said.

“We lost two players and after that I had Gabriel (Paulista) and (Nacho) Monreal on the bench but I couldn’t bring them on because I couldn’t afford to lose any more players.

“I am concerned, we have a big game on Saturday” – against Swansea City – “we have Bayern in the Champions League coming up, already now we are short.

“To lose two players tonight is damaging for us, two offensive players. Ideally we would have loved to win, but with the squad we have got now, we cannot keep in all the competitions.”

Wednesday were well worth their victory at Hillsborough, as they gained revenge for the 1993 League Cup final defeat to Arsenal at Wembley.

The visitors were not able to cope with the dynamic nature of Sheffield’s display and coach Carlos Carvalhal, who has overseen a nine-game unbeaten run in all competitions, knew his side were too good on the night.

“I am very happy about the victory, I think we deserved it,” he said. “Everything belongs to the players, they were fantastic, we put a plan together and they did it 100 per cent.

“I am very happy about the players and for the club, it is an important victory for the club. It was a full stadium, with a new generation of fans. We deserved what we got.”

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

Europe’s rearming plan

Suspend strict budget rules to allow member countries to step up defence spending
Create new "instrument" providing €150 billion of loans to member countries for defence investment
Use the existing EU budget to direct more funds towards defence-related investment
Engage the bloc's European Investment Bank to drop limits on lending to defence firms
Create a savings and investments union to help companies access capital