Arsène Wenger has called for English football’s “politically correct” work permit system to be abolished in order to help Premier League clubs produce the best players in the world. The Arsenal manager said current regulations play into the hands of foreign clubs and revealed that, if not for work permit requirements, he would have signed Ángel Di María long before the Argentinian winger joined Manchester United from Real Madrid for nearly £60m last summer.
The Football Association last week announced its intention to alter the current rules in an effort to secure more opportunities for English players but Wenger said the logic behind the alterations seemed flawed and the proposed measures counterproductive.
Wenger spoke about the issue of work permits because his club will have to apply for one this month if they reach an agreement with Villarreal for the purchase of the Brazilian centre-back Gabriel Paulista. He said there was a “50/50 chance” of a transaction being agreed with the Spanish side before the close of the transfer window – the clubs are thought to be close to a £15m deal – after which Arsenal would have to go before a Home Office committee to appeal for the player to be given a work permit on an “exceptional talent” basis despite him not meeting the basic criterion of having played 75% of his national team’s matches in the past two years.
Under the FA’s proposed changes, which could come into effect in the summer, Gabriel and any other player would qualify for a work permit automatically if a club pays more than £10m for him, but Wenger suggested that Arsenal could not afford to wait until the summer so will go through the application process if required. The club is confident it would win a favourable outcome on similar grounds to those that allowed Willian to join Chelsea last year, ie that the player’s talent is extraordinary. However, he would still like to see the system overhauled, not merely modified in the way proposed by the FA.
Asked what solution he would endorse, Wenger said: “Ideally it would be to open it completely: anyone can come in. Because at the moment we are in a position where they force you to spend money on a player who sometimes you have identified.” He cited Di María as an example, explaining that he had spotted the player in an underage youth tournament nearly a decade ago and wanted to sign him but was unable to do so, leaving Di María to join Benfica instead.
“We had identified Di María when he was 17,” Wenger said. “We wanted him to come here. But he goes to Portugal and from Portugal he goes to Spain. Why? Because he could not get a work permit. That means that he can only come to England once he’s worth a huge amount of money. What does it mean if at the end of the day he comes into the country anyway, with the only difference being it’s for a huge amount of money. And who do you pay that to? A club like Real Madrid, who don’t need the money.”
Wenger said the FA’s planned changes fell between two stools, neither helping the top domestic league nor advancing the cause of English youngsters. “There are two ways to approach the solution for academies. The first is you close completely the country and you play only with English players. That will kill the attractiveness of the Premier League worldwide. The second is to say: ‘Look, we have the best league in the world, let’s produce the best players in the world.’
“This is a job where the competitive aspect is very important. We live in a world where artificial protection is negative. If you want to be the best league in the world you have to accept that you have to produce the best players in the world and say: ‘How can we do that?’
“Since the age of 25 I’ve worked on how can you improve players and one thing is for sure: if you put a young player with top-level players he has more chances of developing into a top-level player. If you put him with average players he has more chances of developing into an average player.
“We have to accept that. It’s the same with children, if you put them into a top class and they are talented, they have a better chance of doing well. At the moment the whole speech is: ‘Let’s put them in an average class.’ That doesn’t work for development. So we have to say: ‘Let’s put them in a top class and see how we can help them in that level.’ But the politically correct speech at the moment is the opposite, it’s: ‘Let’s protect them and not expose them to world class competition.’ I think that’s not the best way to develop the best players here.”