Arsenal have 'lost the plot' with Arsene Wenger and cannot match rivals on transfers, says legend Frank McLintock

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Tom Doyle4 January 2018

Arsenal cannot match their Premier League rivals for transfer spending and have "lost the plot" in recent years, according to club legend Frank McLintock.

Arsene Wenger's Gunners are five points off fourth-placed Liverpool, and trailing leaders Manchester City by 23 points.

Arsenal are currently playing Europa League football after missing out on Champions League qualification last season, and the futures of star duo Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil are uncertain with the pair's contracts expiring at the end of the 2017-18 season.

Though Arsenal have not won the Premier League title since 2004, Wenger has kept the silverware coming in recently with the Gunners lifting three of the last four FA Cups.

However, Arsenal's former double-winning captain McLintock is unimpressed with the club's ambitions of late, and believes that both owner Stan Kroenke and Wenger have decided that the Gunners can no longer compete when it comes to luring big names to the club - despite missing out on a £92million bid for Thomas Lemar last summer.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 live, McLintock said: "I felt disappointed we finished fifth last year, and we could finish fifth or sixth this year, hopefully not.

"I admire good football, and in the last few years Tottenham have been playing very good football, I just get disappointed as we were promised things and we haven’t been able to accomplish that. I don’t think the team are anywhere near as good as some of the teams I've seen in the past.

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“In the last 15 years, this is just an ordinary team in comparison to the ones Arsene Wenger has brought through. Wenger and the owner have decided between them they can’t spend as much money as some of the other bigger clubs are doing.

"Some of the buys have not been as good as I expected, but at the time, if you look back over Wenger’s career, he came in and took over after George Graham and Bruce Rioch and did a fantastic job for about 12-14 years, but in the last three or four years, we have lost the plot and I don’t think we are going to challenge anyone."

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