Soccer: Arsenal no longer a selling club

Mesut Ozil's arrival has helped drive Arsenal to the top of the table. Photo / AP

Arsene Wenger has predicted the arrival of more world-class players for Arsenal while giving the strongest suggestion yet that he will soon confirm a new contract with the club.

There has been a new feeling of optimism at the Emirates ever since the 42.5 million arrival of Mesut Ozil in the close season and the fact Arsenal are mounting their strongest title challenge for six years.

Wenger's contract expires at the end of the season and he sounded confident that the extension of his deal would soon be announced.

When asked whether the club needed to know about his decision, Wenger replied: "There is a point where you have to decide and there is a point where you have to make your decision public." Did this mean Wenger had already agreed his new deal? "You can take of that sentence the way you want it."

With Arsenal still top of the table, much of the new optimism dates back to the purchase of Ozil, whose purchase was a turning point in Arsenal's recent history as they moved from a selling club to a buying one.

"We have gone from a club who looked like they had not the ambition to be capable to fight," admitted Wenger.

With Arsenal in a stronger financial position than ever before, Wenger confirmed they could buy world-class players again in future.

"If the money is available, yes. You know the policy will be exactly the same but the resources available will be higher and bigger because we have gone through a period where we had to pay our stadium back. Today that weight is smaller in our budget because the rest of the income has become much bigger."

This time last year, Wenger's side found themselves in sixth spot, six points behind Tottenham in fourth, and the manager said being top was a far more enjoyable experience.

"When you are fifth or sixth, you have to push and not make any mistake because you know that from now until the end of the season, with 10 games to go, you cannot drop one point. It is like bringing a boat into a port with no room for going an inch right or left or the whole boat explodes."

Meanwhile, close by in North London, arch-rivals Spurs' caretaker manager Tim Sherwood warned Mauricio Pochettino last night that Tottenham Hotspur was a different job to managing Southampton, after Spurs were linked with a summer approach for the Argentine.

Although Sherwood has a contract as Spurs head coach until the end of next season, he admitted he has to get results to keep his job and that his decisions in the transfer window were purely short-term.

Since the resignation of Southampton executive chairman Nicola Cortese, Pochettino has been linked with the Spurs job.

As well as he has done at Saints, taking them into the top half of the table with enterprising football, Sherwood issued a warning: "The expectation at this club is far greater than they have at Southampton."

Sherwood knows how high expectations are at Tottenham. He has won four of the five league games of his tenure so far but acknowledged he will have to keep that up, describing suggestions his job was under threat as realism.

"If the results meet the expectation of the club, I will still be here. If they don't, I won't."

Tottenham are two points behind fourth-placed Liverpool but Sherwood joked he would need to win the title.

"I have to win it," he said. "You guys don't want to hear it because it is boring but it is every game as it comes. It is a cliche but it is going all right, especially in the league. Long may that continue and if it does, it will be hard for somebody to come in and push me out.

"I am realistic enough to know the ambitions of this club are very, very high ... I knew that before I took the job and I am just hoping I can do enough to keep the job in the long-term."

- The Independent