BBC SPORT | Euro 2008 blog

Wenger hits Basel - and brings cheque book

Paul Fletcher
6 Jun 08, 10:30 PM

Basel

Euro 2008 is almost upon us and the game's big hitters have arrived in town.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger and former Bayern Munich boss Ottmar Hitzfeld, who will take charge of Switzerland after the tournament, attended a press conference in ambassadorial roles on Friday evening.

And I'm sure Gunners fans will be very interested to hear what their manager had to say.

I asked Wenger whether any players at Euro 2008 might be playing their club football at the Emirates next season. The Frenchman, speaking in his capacity as a Castrol Index ambassador, said: "I'm here with my cheque book

"If I see something I like....I don't rule anything out."

After three trophyless seasons, Wenger has obviously decided it is time to spend, but who will he buy?

And, perhaps of greater relevance, which players could he realistically hope to sign?

I also asked Wenger if he'd be a happy man if, as has been widely speculated, Cristiano Ronaldo left Manchester United, one of Arsenal's major rivals, for Real Madrid during the summer, but the 'Professor' was far too wily to be drawn on that subject.

After pointing out that the Portuguese star is under contract, he indicated that players should be more loyal.

As for possible stars at Euro 2008, the Gunners boss tipped Germany's Mario Gomez, France's Karim Benzema and Croatia's Luka Modric to shine.

Modric, of course, is now a Tottenham player.

But, interesting as Wenger was, there is no doubt that the king of the Euro circus is French football legend Michel Platini, now president of Uefa.

At an earlier press conference on Friday, he declared that "the party is about to start".

And if Platini's timekeeping is anything to go by, it certainly is.

The normal form as far as press conferences go in England is that a time is announced, the media gather, and at some point in the near to distant future the key personalities deign to turn up.

Not so with Monsieur Platini, who was in his seat 20 minutes before the scheduled start.

He dodged questions with the sort of elegance he used to dodge tackles on the field of play, pretending not to notice when one Chinese journalist addressed him as Mr Blatter and affecting a very expressive combination of a smirk and slight movement of the head when asked which team he thought would win.

You cannot fault his diligence, though, making notes as he was asked a question and then providing thorough and lengthy answers, even if he was not as direct as he could have been with his responses.

Michele Platini

I asked him whether he thought Euro 2008 would be a more adventurous tournament and less tactical than past ones.

"We should let players play," he answered, "and not keep them on a tight rein."

But if the president's overall demeanour was of a man content with his lot, then a look at the Uefa coffers perhaps explains why.

It was announced at the press conference that Uefa predicts that Euro 2008 will generate a total turnover of £680.9m, with a profit of £187.2m. Nice work if you can get it.

Those who feel the role of the supporter is of increasingly peripheral importance might wish to consider that only 7% of the revenue is generated by ticket sales.

One man in Basel told me that "Uefa is about business and not football". And athough Platini stressed again and again that the tournament is about the fans, plenty of people I have spoken to express their dismay at the amount of tickets that have either been kept within the Uefa family or designated for corporate use.

Tickets are like gold dust, to the extent that touts are even doing a brisk trade selling ones for training sessions nevermind actual matches.

I doubt whether Platini, Wenger or Hitzfeld are struggling for tickets, though whether the Arsenal boss has the sort of riches he needs to boost his squad remains to be seen.

Paul Fletcher is a broadcast journalist at BBC Sport Interactive. Please check our FAQs if you have any questions.

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Comments

1. At 11:16pm on 06 Jun 2008, Stevie357 wrote:
Delighted to see he's ready to spend money - we really need to bolster the squad to present a better challenge to United and Chelsea.

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2. At 11:17pm on 06 Jun 2008, broken_boy wrote:
Its a complete joke that uefa ''family'' or corporate get a large slice of the tickets specially as in this tournement the stadia arent as large as previous ones. This in my opinion could lead to a large lack of atmosphere.

I admire platini in wanting free flowing football and not a tactical break downs of teams. But I then dispise him for saying its about the fans when its clearly not. I would like to see 45% of tickets go to each respective association to be gives to the FANS. Then 10% for the ''family'' or corporate.

As you stated in your blog uefa will make a profit of 180million. Surely therefore they dont need to give tickets to their ''family'' or corporate. Uefa shouldn't be a business but a organisation.

Also uefa have recently argued that the whole tournement shouldn't be free to watch that also proves uefa just want money now. The club game is losing its soul and so is now the international...

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3. At 11:21pm on 06 Jun 2008, iRocket122 wrote:
A Honest United Fan Speaking.(:

Arsene Wenger Should Of Started Signing Players When He Noticed Chelsea Were Mounting A Premier League Challenge Under Jose Mourinho Yet Instead He Relied On The Youngsters Coming Through The Ranks.[=

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4. At 11:56pm on 06 Jun 2008, englandcomeon wrote:
Wenger as ever right on top of it all.

Gomez could IMO be the man with the golden boot.

It won't be Klose, and I have to admire Mr Wenger as he always has an eye for the european game. This (speaking as an enlishman in Germay) is what the English game is missing, thankfully after my pleading and the failure of Mc idiot, Capello be our manager.

It's overdue that English football took a look at itself and played a ore European style (at least when it suits).

We may have "invented the game" but we should "learn" from nations that have a better basic training (Germany) or better technical ability (Brazil...............anyone)

not just think the EPL great and never mind the rest????

STUPIDITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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5. At 11:59pm on 06 Jun 2008, Campioni-del-Mondo wrote:
I would have liked to hear Ottmar Hitzfeld's opinion considering the fact he was at the press conference aswell.

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6. At 00:24am on 07 Jun 2008, Grazman wrote:
Dear Rocket,
From one Man U fan to another, please note it is 'should have started', not 'should of started'.
I am an English teacher and such errors make me worry about the future of our glorious language.
Otherwise your post was ok.

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7. At 00:37am on 07 Jun 2008, gino333 wrote:
ge that grazman is sso smart

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8. At 00:43am on 07 Jun 2008, The Hiphopopotamus wrote:
To Grazman, i'm a student though not studying english and i am always correcting my friends when they use 'of' as a verb.

Your correction brought a smile to my face and for that i thank you

p.s. Feel free to correct mine as well

p.p.s I actually feel excited about Arsenal buying some medium to big names this summer

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9. At 02:26am on 07 Jun 2008, TVDanlaw wrote:
Arsen has said it again and again that he does'nt buy stars but make stars.I think the present situation in the EPL does'nt allow for that.Now we are going to have 8 teams gunning for honours.It used to be two. I would like to see David Villa or the German,Gomez in Arsenal next season.Then Nasri and Michael Johnson[Man. City].I think we need serious reinforcement in the defence also;Kompany and lescot will do,while shipping out Djirou.We also need a left winger and Ashley young is ripe.Daniel Ogbegie.

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10. At 08:29am on 07 Jun 2008, kevinchangson wrote:
Response to comment number 1

We dont have to spend that much money over the summer. If players leave, then obviously we will have to replace them, but this season, we were only 2 points off chelsea and 4 points of man united. At least we know that this squad of arsenal players can challenge for the title already as they accumulated 83 points and Wenger has won the title before with less. We only need one or two players over the summer, but thats only if we keep our current players and strengthen.

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11. At 09:30am on 07 Jun 2008, quickquip wrote:
Ummmm, the longer the answer, the shorter the reply. Looks like Platini is learning his craft from his mentor and patron Blatter with the same evasive "diligence" he fields press questions. No wonder he was confused for slippery Sepp; the more Platini comes to resemble Blatter, the more likely it will perhaps be that he will be sitting in his official seat one day. That's if supporters don't finally get so disgusted with men in suits with checkbooks making football a business and not a sport that they decide that the whole bloated business and all its Wengers and Platinis and Blatters are of peripheral importance to them, and don't deign to show up or tune in at all anymore.

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12. At 11:13am on 07 Jun 2008, OranjeRotterdam wrote:
Euro being about the fans? Was on the news here that for the 3 Holland group matches, the Dutch FA has only been handed 18.000 tickets, of which half were for sponsors and guests, so that means 9.000 tickets for true fans, for 3 matches! So that's 3.000 tickets per match!!

The stadium in Bern where the Dutch play their matches fits only 32.000 spectators so all in all not even 10 percent of the available seats go to Orange-supporters who had to pay for their tickets.

Football and especially these big tournaments are about making money. Gone is the glory of winning for your country. In the eyes of UEFA and FIFA anyway.

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13. At 11:13am on 07 Jun 2008, geordie1892 wrote:
Re Grazman, 00:24, 7 June 2008

" 'should have started', not 'should of started' "

Lovely to see someone correcting another person's grammar. Now clearly my grammar is not perfect so feel free to pick the bones from this one, but I agree that that the future of our glorious language is at stake...

I believe that this could be caused by the state of our schooling system, for example take your response which I have quote above. Notice that I have protected the "glorious language" by using quotation marks rather than an apostrophe. Perhaps you disagree that punctuation is an important part of the"glorious language"?

Perhaps the use of capital letters for abrreviations is of little importance too, "Otherwise your post was ok", should surely read, "Otherwise your post was OK", "Otherwise your post was O.K." or perhaps, "Otherwise your post was okay".

Let us agree to disagree or, perhaps, forgive those who opt to use colloquial writing and support them in their aim to get their point aired.

Neway (deliberate as I am sure you despise so-called "text speak") in regard to the football, I believe Mr. Wenger needs only a little growth in his squad and of course to replace those who leave over the course of the summer.

Enjoy Euro2008 everyone!

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14. At 11:25am on 07 Jun 2008, gunnerdan wrote:
Arsene's Checklist
1Ib cheese
1x goalkeeper
2x midfielders
2 pts milk
1x striker
6 pack doughnuts
hell may as well get some defenders too

yep Arsenes got some serious shopping to do

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15. At 11:38am on 07 Jun 2008, John-Bunnell wrote:
Those of you who happen to be NFL fans and enjoy indulging in a bit of spelling and grammar correction in order to alternatively:

1) Demean entirely the points of your fellow sports fans

2) Show your own intellectual and/or written superiority

might want to check out a chap named Michael Silver, who tends to correct all errors on behalf of those who send him abusive e-mails.

I think Wenger might want to buy a centre half and a forward and verse his defence in the art of defending a set piece. They should work a drill similar to the one they had years ago for offsides when the whole backline was tied to Tony Adams. It'd work wonders.

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16. At 11:50am on 07 Jun 2008, mistajohn wrote:
Re Geordie, good debate:

"but I agree that that the future of our glorious language is at stake..."

>>> typo?

"by the state of our schooling system"

>>> I would have gone for 'educational system' myself

Cheers and Go Russia!

John

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17. At 11:53am on 07 Jun 2008, ibypatel14 wrote:
cant wait to sse who wenger buys next well people may know that its going to be samir nasri but cant wait!! can u?

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18. At 12:01pm on 07 Jun 2008, geordie1892 wrote:
Re Mistajohn

Ah soemone spotted the double "that" :( haha

Yep, I agree that educational system would have been a better choice of wording, however I was going for the pun "state of our schooling" -> state schools... perhaps it didn't work

Was more interested to see if Grazman would bite... watch this space :D

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19. At 1:07pm on 07 Jun 2008, Stevie357 wrote:
Sure our first 11 is alright, but Chelsea and United are better because they have a second 11 ready to go - and that's what we need to go and get.

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20. At 1:15pm on 07 Jun 2008, merryMikemichaelson wrote:
It's about time Wenger bought some British players instead of looking at more foreigners.
Filling his side with 99% foreigners has won him nothing in the last 3 years.

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21. At 2:15pm on 07 Jun 2008, Paul Fletcher - BBC Sport wrote:
I'll be making sure that I watch my grammar closely over the next weeks.

Any specific players in mind that you would like to see at Arsenal?

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22. At 2:22pm on 07 Jun 2008, Penelopeep wrote:
Dean Windass (-;

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23. At 3:14pm on 07 Jun 2008, clichy1 wrote:
i am actually appalled that an english teacher would not know how to spell okay. remarkable, isn't it? it is high time that the people on these forums considered the fact that not everyone has to write correctly. for example, i have not used one capital letter in this comment, yet the message i wish to convey is here to be read. get down of your high horse and let everyone write as they wish to write. when you cant understand it, then fine. dont be pedantic about it though, was there actually any need to point out his mistake? no.

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24. At 3:41pm on 07 Jun 2008, RedMistDescending wrote:
Paul Fletcher:

"I'll be making sure that I watch my grammar closely over the next weeks."

Why, is she ill? *groan* :P

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25. At 3:41pm on 07 Jun 2008, ArgentinaBlade wrote:
Nice article Paul - hope you are well....Nick Page

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26. At 6:18pm on 07 Jun 2008, 49 and that's a wrap wrote:
iRocket122, please stop capitalizing the first letter of every word. You'll notice that no one else does it, not even for emphasis. Take a remedial English class if you need it.

As for the greed, yeah, it's sad. It's what happens when you don't have strict rules around the pursuit of money, unfortunately. How can Platini etc justify forgoing millions to satisfy some fans?

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27. At 3:24pm on 08 Jun 2008, emjaylambert wrote:
I love this article because it contains the words Arsenal's three trophyless seasons underlined and highlighted. Who were the only London team to win a trophy this season...? Oh, that's right, the mighty mighty Tottenham... ;)

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28. At 3:34pm on 08 Jun 2008, emjaylambert wrote:
P.S. Having watched Philippe Senderos be as classy and commanding for Switzerland as he is for Arsenal, it's clear that there's one area that M. Wenger does NOT need to improve on... heh heh

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29. At 7:09pm on 08 Jun 2008, pharisee wrote:
Rocket 122 should've written "Arsene Wenger should've started signing players ..."

clichy1 writes "let everyone write as they wish to write." Presumably he writes in order to be read. If writer and reader do not observe minimum rules, communication becomes impossible.

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30. At 7:49pm on 08 Jun 2008, pritz_29 wrote:
he would probably go and buy one of the promising players from the smaller teams, and not a shining star and someone already on top of their game that took the tournament buy storm.

on the evidence of the games so far, knowing wenger he would probably be looking at aurelio of turkey(altough his age is a factor), ivanswhitch of Austria and so far thats about it

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31. At 11:25am on 09 Jun 2008, Miraglyth wrote:
re: Comment #20 (merryMikemichaelson):

I was unaware that the number of English (or "British", as you'd probably consider it) players was in an automatically direct correlation to the amount of success a team has.

But then I haven't been paying attention to the English national side. I assume that since all their opponents are 0% English, that England have been winning everything.

Right?

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32. At 11:33am on 09 Jun 2008, fair teh middlin' wrote:
""We should let players play," he answered, "and not keep them on a tight rein.""

From what I saw, the refs have been told to penalise attackers backing into defenders -- hardly makes for more "play".

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33. At 2:13pm on 09 Jun 2008, Coffeebreakman wrote:
Dear Grazman

I was just wondering if you could tell me why you found nothing wrong with the comment "A Honest Utd Fan"?

Obviously I am referring to the error in his grammar and not the unlikeliness of a Man Utd fan being honest!

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34. At 4:50pm on 09 Jun 2008, Aero337 wrote:
Wenger is a great inspiration too all managers in the world and is very clever in the players he chooses :D

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35. At 7:21pm on 09 Jun 2008, spaingooner wrote:
As an Arsenal fan, i am very excited by Wenger's seeming willingness to spend this summer. Nasri looks an excellent prospect, as does Aquilani (of Roma) who i have also seen linked to us.

However to cement the title next season i believe we still lack a world class goalkeeper to complement our already strong defence.

The future does very much look bright at the Emirates for the 08/09 season, however, and i personally cannot wait.

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36. At 6:40pm on 10 Jun 2008, deathstarBD wrote:
we need santa cruz/ mario gomez- ade shud be on the bench

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