Wenger said that rich clubs were removing the desire for success

Arsène Wenger has called for all youth players to be paid the same amount until the age of 17 to ensure that they have the hunger to make it to the top.

The Arsenal manager has claimed that rich clubs are making the financial rewards for youth footballers so high that they are removing the desire for success.

Wenger was speaking in a documentary, No Hunger in Paradise, which is to be screened by BT Sport on January 7. Michael Calvin, the documentary’s presenter, describes a “thriving black economy” in English youth football, including illicit deals where a 13-year-old was offered a guaranteed professional contract of £45,000 a week and a nine-year-old paid £24,000 per year.

Wenger said: “If we had a system where