Wenger wants refs respect
by Ben Blackmore and Laurent Picard, 12 November 2007
Arsene Wenger has told Setanta Sports that he would like the FA to allow the captains, and only them, to speak to the referee during Premier League games. The Gunners’ boss has also defended Arsenal's lack of English players.
The French manager does not want his players to speak to the man in black and to discuss his decisions.
As a consequence Wenger has declared himself a fan of a new regulation that could be adopted in the near future.
The Alsatian would like his team to show a good example of respect for the man with the whistle and confessed that he makes a mistake every time he complains to the referee.
“I believe that the best way of making a good example is to address it from the top down,” Wenger told Setanta Sports.
“We are not always a good example and I am part of that; I do not always behave like I should.
“But it’s very important we try to do it.”
The Frenchman, who joined Arsenal 11 years ago, has been criticised throughout his Premier League career for not adding English players to his squad, but he defended himself saying that his policy was more logical than it looked.
“I feel that when you are in a better class, you improve better and you should not put the criteria down to produce local players,” he added.
“I think that you have to put them up and say: listen, you have to be at the level of Thierry Henry and all these players. It is a chance to produce better players.
“I can understand the worriers, but sometimes it is not always as logical as it looks.
“A player like Steve Sidwell, he didn’t get in our team. Where did he go? To Reading, and at Reading he got the chance to play and now he plays for Chelsea.
“But if you raise the standards for the national players and allow them to play for only big clubs, then it will be detrimental to the smaller clubs.
“What will happen is that in England all the biggest clubs will take all the best players and the gap will become even bigger between the bigger clubs and the smaller clubs.”