Arsene Wenger 'loves a bargain' as he compares Black Friday sales to Arsenal signing Patrick Vieira and Mesut Ozil

Wenger has admitted that he will be active in the January transfer window but looked back at the £3.5m signing of Patrick Vieira as his greatest bargain of his Arsenal reign

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger (Getty Images)

Arsene Wenger has compared ‘Black Friday’ to his bargain signings during his time at Arsenal, with Patrick Vieira singled out as his best ever signing.

The Arsenal manager faced the media ahead of this weekend’s Premier League trip to Norwich, although he looked somewhat confused when asked a question regarding Friday’s shopping extravaganza that sees sales across the land send bargain hunters into a frenzy.

Ever the one seize an opportunity though, Wenger used his answer to discuss the importance of the transfer window and buying smart, with his former captain a prime example of how value can be found when signing the right players.

“I love a bargain,” said Wenger, although he did admit to not knowing about ‘Black Friday’. “Who does not love a bargain? I don’t know many people that don’t like a bargain.

“If people need two TVs, yes, [buy them]. But if they don’t need one, why should they buy two? That’s where you come back to a bargain. What is for us a bargain is to buy players of top quality, because only top quality strengthens our squad.”

Despite spending just a few million pounds on Vieira, who went on to lead the ‘Invincibles’ to an unbeaten Premier League season I n2003/04, Wenger also believes that his record £42.5m signing of Mesut Özil can also be classed as a bargain signing.

“I can tell you I bought Patrick Vieira for £3.5million and it was a top bargain because he was a top quality player,” he added. “We spent £40m on [Mesut] Ozil but I still consider it a bargain because the player is top quality and the priority has to be the quality of the player.”

Wenger went on to discuss his plans for the January transfer window, with the Gunners’ boss being urged to strengthen after Francis Coquelin was ruled out for three months with knee ligament damage earlier this week. The Frenchman joins Jack Wilshere, Tomas Rosicky and Danny Welbeck as long-term absentees, although Aaron Ramsey did return in the midweek victory over Dinamo Zagreb and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in in contention to play this weekend.

The 66-year-old stressed that while he will look to be active in the transfer market, he will only make moves if the players available are of “the right quality”.

“We are in a position where we want to do something,” he said. “If I find the right quality I will do something.”