Arsene Wenger has admitted that he offered Bacary Sagna a three year deal to stay at Arsenal, but the right-back chose to move to Manchester City anyway.

Stories and spin surround any kind of transfer deal, and although it had been widely reported that the Gunners had only offered the Frenchman two years and no increase in salary, the Arsenal manager told the press today, “You will have to ask Sagna why he chose City. I made him a proposal to stay for three years, but he chose them.

“Had he chosen a long time ago? Maybe – it looks to me like he agreed it a long time before.

“It is disappointing because he came here as an unknown and he became a French ­international.

“But I also respect Sagna because, until the last day of his contract with us, he was super-professional.”

And that comment about respect is one that people should pay attention to because Sagna gave nothing less than 100% in every game and respected his contract, unlike others.

However, Wenger was keen to play up how different things are at Arsenal now, as opposed to the years when the likes of Adebayor, Toure, Nasri and Clichy jumped ship.

“We are less vulnerable in the market. Over the last year we have bought Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez – five years ago we would have missed out on both of them.”

And isn’t that the truth? We’ve had to go through a lot to get where we are now, but hopefully that pain will be worth it in the years to come.