Wenger wants honest winners

Arsene Wenger warned Manchester United that they could suffer this season from selling David Beckham and Juan Sebastian Veron as he responded to further criticism of his under-fire winger Robert Pires.

When it was put to Wenger that Alex Ferguson had insisted it is up to managers to stop their players diving, the Arsenal boss stressed that this should not apply to Pires.

The Frenchman has come under renewed fire after it was revealed that referee Alan Wiley is set to rescind the yellow card awarded to Dejan Stefanovic last weekend at Highbury for bringing down Pires in the penalty area.

After he was told that Ferguson had entered the debate, Wenger responded: “Of course, you don’t want your players to dive.

“But when your player tells you he didn’t dive, you can’t tell him not to dive and I saw much bigger dives in other games last weekend.

“I have always influenced my players not to cheat, dive or kick anybody. I hate that. I think you have to respect the spirit of the game and not cheat in any way.”

Wenger seemed reluctant to be drawn into yet another war of words with Ferguson ahead of tomorrow’s showdown at Old Trafford, although a spark of controversy is never too far away.

Indeed, while the Arsenal boss believes that Kleberson, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Cristiano Ronaldo will adequately replace Beckham and Veron in time, he made it clear that he does not feel it will happen immediately.

“They have lost two players with a high technical level and a lot of experience. They have replaced them with young talents who are coming in,” he observed.

“So at the moment, you could say immediately they have lost two players used to playing in big games in England. But in the future, Ronaldo, Kleberson and Djemba-Djemba will compensate for that.”

Asked if he would have sold Beckham, Wenger, who attempted to buy Ronaldo himself, responded: “It’s very difficult as I don’t know what kind of decision was made there.

“Was it a financial decision because he was 28 or was it a relationship decision with Sir Alex Ferguson? Only the manager can really make that kind of decision.

“Beckham has played for 10 or 12 years and maybe he wanted a change. I don’t really know what happened and I don’t think this is really the right moment to speak about it.”