Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger will continue to focus on young players, despite being given a £100million transfer kitty this summer.

ESPN are reporting that Stan Kroenke will allow the French manager to spend a £100million on new players next season, in a bid to get Arsenal to the top of the Premier League. The Gunners spent the early months of the season at the summit of the table, but are now 7 points adrift of Liverpool in 1st with 6 games remaining.

Nicolas Anelka, Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira and Cesc Fabregas were all youngsters given a chance by Wenger, and the Frenchman said he intends to find other youngsters who will develop into top players: "They [academy graduates] think the club has given them a chance so they want to give something back as well," Wenger told the Arsenal website. "It has to work both ways, but we want to be the ones who give a chance.

"It's one of the values of our club. We want to be very successful without neglecting the need to give a chance to people. I want it to be part of our tradition and I also want to develop a spirit inside the club that makes the young players be faithful to this club.

"It's a big mental test for the [young] players because you see how they resist stress, how they can deal with the pressure and how they can be committed in a very demanding environment. These kinds of qualities you discover only when you play the players. Of course, it's an early test that not everybody can take on. Some fail, but the strong ones just feel they belong there."

Many Arsenal fans were calling for Wenger to be sacked at the start of the season, but the Frenchman has stayed put, and has guided the club to a FA Cup semi-final appearance at Wembley.

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