Lukaku/Barry Scare Wenger As Arsenal Face Everton In A Crucial Game

Arsene Wenger has branded the Premier League loan system ‘indefensible’ as Arsenal face a critical six-pointer against Everton’s hired hands.

Romelu Lukaku and Gareth Barry have both excelled at Goodison this season, on loan from fellow high-fliers Chelsea and Manchester City, and they can move to within a point of the Gunners – with a game in hand – if they defeat Wenger’s men at Goodison Park Sunday.

And Wenger claims loans within the top flight should be banned – or that players should be available for selection against their parent clubs, to protect the integrity of the competition.

“I believe that if you want to continue the system we have to make them available against the teams that loaned them out – or the system is not defensible. Wenger said.

“It is just a protection of the clubs who loan the players out to hurt their opponents, when they have no risk at all.

“For a while you could decide when you loaned a player out whether he could play against you or not and I always decided ‘yes, he can play against us’.

“The system is the same for Chelsea, Arsenal and everybody else but the only question is ‘is the system right or not?’ It is open for debate.

“It is true Everton have done a quality job on that front because they have got Barry, Lukaku, Gerard Deulofeu from Barcelona.

“Lukaku and Barry yes they have been influential. Gerard Deulofeu is a very good player, who has the quality to play for Barcelona so I think he will maybe go back there.”

Asked whether Chelsea and City deliberately loan out players to damage their title rivals, Wenger said: “I don’t think so – I think it is just a chance to loan the player somewhere at the top level and see how good he is, which we try to do as well, but it raises questions.

“This is not something against Chelsea or Man City, it’s just that the whole system has to be considered.”

“I think the best thing would be that players are only loaned to the lower divisions and abroad – and even abroad, I am not completely convinced that it is right.

“For example, I read in a paper that in Holland they complain that Vitesse Arnhem doesn’t want to win the Championship – so that is the kind of question you get in the modern game. We are interested in feeder clubs as well but it is true it raises questions.

“I am all for feeder clubs. The big problem for academies is after their education, giving them experience between 18 and 21, to get them competition. Chelsea have done that very well because they have players in a good championship (Holland) and they can control their education. I am in favour of that.”