Arsene Wenger says he was forced to sell players at Arsenal to balance the books.

The likes of Thierry Henry, Samir Nasri, Cesc Fabregas, Emmanuel Adebayor and Robin van Persie were all sold on.

Arsenal were unable to win the league title following their stadium move despite several near misses.

And Wenger has revealed that "many times" he allowed players to leave because Arsenal needed to financially.

He said on BeIN Sports: "You have to always manage the club with the financial potential that you have and respect the financial constraints you have.

"I did every year (sell players). We had to pay the stadium back at the time, we needed to be in the top four, but we also needed to pay the mortgage back.