Arsène Wenger has pledged the rest of his club career to Arsenal by signing a three-year contract extension. The club's longest-serving manager said he decided to stay at the Emirates until 2014 because his "heart belongs to Arsenal", and because his maturing side "are ready to deliver".
The decision comes despite Wenger's increasing anger with the Premier League, whose "ridiculous" new 25-man squad rule leaves clubs involved in European competition at a disadvantage domestically. The policy obliges each club to nominate 25 players including eight homegrown players – although there is no limit on the number of under-21s teams can use.
Wenger said the new structure, which has been used by Uefa in the Champions League for some years now, makes no sense when applied to a larger domestic competition. "Some teams in England play 40 games, some play 65. That is 25 games different. If you play 65 games you need more players," he said.
He has been an outspoken critic of a system that hinders the ability of players to play, and encourages agents to become even more mercenary. He was dismayed to read how Stephen Ireland's representatives are asking for a hefty pay off to move him from Manchester City.
Wenger points specifically to a clause that could mean that players such as Ireland, left on the fringes of their squads, will legally be able to extricate themselves from their contracts. "If a player plays less than 10% of games in a season he can get rid of his contract. It's a Fifa rule. I would like to know whether, when they voted for [the new system] in the Premier League, that they knew about this rule."
Wenger is referring to clause IV, section 15, of Fifa's regulations on the status and transfer of players. It states: "An established professional who has, in the course of the season, appeared in fewer than 10% of the official matches in which his club has been involved may terminate his contract prematurely on the ground of sporting just cause.
"The existence of a sporting just cause shall be established on a case-by-case basis. In such a case, sporting sanctions shall not be imposed, though compensation may be payable."
Fifa would judge each individual case, but it would hardly be difficult for a player excluded from a squad list of 25 to argue he has not had a fair chance to play.
According to Wenger, the Premier League have not thought through the consequences, particularly for players who are on pay-as-you-play contracts. "If you have players who have incitement for competition, which means they are paid when they play, they can go to court for that money because they never had a chance to play," he said. "If you are not in the 25 how can you play?"
Wenger had earlier suggested that the wider principle – that a 25-man system with unlimited under-21s would solve England's problem with producing talented young English players – was flawed. "There are as many foreign players in Spain as in England. You can sign players from all over the world in Spain. So why do they still produce players and we do not? It's down to the coaching.
"I've been educating players since I was 25 and I know one rule. The first thing you do to develop a player is to put him with another good player. If you are a great player, you want to play with great players.
"The Premier League have to decide: are they here to prepare the national team, so let's kick everybody else out? Or are they here to be the best league in the world?"
Richard Scudamore, the Premier League's chief executive, said Wenger's comments were "emotive".
"What we're trying to do is get young players through. It's not about the top superstars. It's not restricting the number of players – we're just restricting the number of over-21s.
"What we're trying to do is make the marginal decisions go the other way. If you're about to decide whether to give a young player a contract or buy a foreign player then all of a sudden you think maybe we'll err on the side of the young player.
"I think Arsène, much as I respect him, has got a little bit emotive on this one."