Neymar deal ‘beyond rationality’, insists Arsene Wenger

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London, August 4: Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has stated Neymar's proposed €222 million move to Paris Saint-Germain has proved that football is no longer a rational industry.

The Brazilian striker made a permanent move to the French capital on August 3 after Barcelona gave Neymar permission to conclude the deal.

The 25-year-old broke last year's Paul Pogba record £89 million move to Manchester United and agreed to move to the French capital for a mammoth €222 million (£198m).

The transfer deal is worth more than four times as much as Arsenal's record marking Alexandre Lacazette and the Gunners boss insisted a club which have limited transfer budget will never maintain rationality in the current transfer market.

Wenger also stated that the deal is a characteristic outcome of rich financial authorities assuming control of football clubs and with PSG owned by QSI, an arm of the multi-billion Qatar Investment Authority, everything is achievable.

"For me, it's a consequence of the ownerships," he told a news conference when asked about Neymar.

"That has changed completely the whole landscape of football in the last 15 years."

"Once a country owns a club, everything is possible, so it becomes very difficult to respect Financial Fair Play. That's why I always plead for football to live within its own resources."

"We're not in a period any more where you think 'if I invest that, I'll get that back'. We're beyond that now. The numbers today involves a lot of passion, pride, public interest, and you cannot rationalise that any more."

"It looks like the inflation is accelerating. We crossed the 100 million line for the first time last year and only one year later we cross the 200 million line."

"When you think Trevor Francis was the first guy at £1 million [in English football in 1979], and that looked unreasonable, you realise how far we have gone and how big football has become. It's beyond calculation, beyond rationality."

Arsenal themselves had been linked with breaking the transfer record earlier when they were linked with a £118 million move for Monaco sensation Kylian Mbappe.

However, when Wenger was inquired as to whether the Gunners can contend with the kind of spending, the Frenchman concluded Arsenal still "lives with rationality".

"We still live with rationality," he added. "Of course we cannot compete at that level."

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