Paul Pogba's agent Mino Raiola says he respects Arsene Wenger's 'philosophy' regarding transfers, but questions whether the Arsenal manager has the confidence to seal a world-record deal like Manchester United did.
Wenger quickly secured Granit Xhaka for £33.8million and Bolton youngster Rob Holding midway through the summer, but left Gunners fans frustrated as he complained about value in the market as the search for a new defender and a striker dragged on.
The French coach eventually secured £35m centre-back Shkodran Mustafi and £17m striker Lucas Perez the day before the transfer window closed, but insisted that neither player was a panic-buy having lost the opening game of the season 4-3 at home to Liverpool.
United manager Jose Mourinho bought Pogba from Juventus for a world-record £89m fee despite the interest of Real Madrid, and Raiola suggests such a deal is about more than the sums involved.
"It’s not just a case of spending the money," Raiola told the Daily Mail. "It’s shouldering the responsibility of spending that money and saying, 'yes, this is my man'.
"Arsenal have the money but do they have the balls?
"I respect Arsene Wenger. He has a philosophy that says these figures don’t match what I want to do, so that’s OK.
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"Real Madrid? The will of Zinedine Zidane was strong but we were not sure it was the will of the club."
Raiola brokered Pogba's record-breaking move back to Manchester, and also represents United goalkeeper Sergio Romero as well as fellow new recruits Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
But despite Pogba's struggles since returning to Old Trafford, Raiola says United's impressive summer outlay stems from a desire to restore their reputation after three years without a Premier League title title.
"I think Manchester United showed the world this summer that they were not going to stand still, they want to be the best," he said.
"They sent out a message with the transfers they did that this is the biggest club in the world.
"I always say to my players we go where we are needed. United will always be one of the biggest clubs in the world whether by reputation or balance sheet.
"Yes, Manchester United had no Champions League and weren’t champions but they needed us the most.
"United had been talking to us for two years about Pogba."
