Arsenal boss Wenger not surprised by lack of January spending

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger isn't surprised spending was well down during this season's winter market.

Trading figures were down year-on-year from £225million in January 2011 to £29million going into this month’s deadline day and Wenger believes it is a response to the global economic downturn.

"The figures show you [that there is more caution]," the Frenchman told arsenal.com.

"You must say as well that you had big transfers last year with Torres, Carroll and David Luiz. This package alone was about £100million, but still there is a significant difference because we are in a recession period and everybody suffers.

"I don't know if you have seen the numbers in Europe but there are 1.6bn Euro losses [among football clubs, according to a Uefa report], that's not debt but losses.

"That is absolutely amazing. That means tomorrow if you had to stop your activity, half of Europe would be bankrupt.

"It means that football has to respond and I don’t know if financial fair play will come in, but it looks like economically the whole of Europe is becoming a bit more cautious."