LONDON, Nov 15 – Arsene Wenger has cooled suggestions Real Madrid could sign Neymar and Kylian Mbappe next summer – because PSG have the financial clout to keep the pair.
Real Madrid have been linked with swoops for both Neymar and Mbappe in recent months.
Neymar was a £200m signing from Barcelona last summer, while PSG handed over £166m to Monaco this year to make Mbappe’s loan move permanent.
The pair have terrorised Ligue 1 defenders for over a year now but their star-studded reputations have caught the eye of Real.
Los Blancos are expected to move for one of the duo at the end of the season.
But former Arsenal manager Wenger reckons money talks and PSG – backed by the oil-rich state of Qatar – will not let Neymar nor Mbappe leave.
“When you have world class players, I made over 300 transfers in my life,” Wenger told BeIN Sports.
“When you have a good player it is always difficult to keep him.
“PSG have enough financial power to keep them.”
The mention of his struggles to keep good players is likely in reference to Wenger’s period of frugality at Arsenal, where they regularly lost their top stars in the transfer market.
The Gunners built their new Emirates Stadium in 2006 and in the following years Wenger saw the likes of Thierry Henry, Ashley Cole, Cesc Fabregas, Robin van Persie, Samir Nasri and Bacary Sagna exit the club.
As for PSG, global football has been dominated by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo for the past decade, with the pair each winning five Ballon d’Ors.
However, Mbappe’s excellent World Cup with France and Neymar’s emergence as one of the planet’s best strikers means the Ballon d’Or may head elsewhere this winter.
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