English football owes Arsene Wenger an apology

Now that the sheer scale of Manchester City's financial breaches has been exposed, it is time for reparations. There are clubs who will seek compensation for the advantage gained from City's financial doping.

But the man who coined that phrase deserves something more valuable than money. Arsene Wenger was in Kuala Lumpur on one of those big summer tours he always fought against because playing in 34-degree heat and 82 per cent humidity is not the best way to prepare for an English winter.

But it was 2011 and Arsenal needed the money. There were new challenges from freshly wealthy clubs, chief among them Manchester City.

In Malaysia, Wenger focused on the 10-year £400m sponsorship deal with Etihad Airways that would rename the City of Manchester Stadium. As the deal was worth more than 45 times Etihad's annual profit, Wenger was suspicious.

Emirates paid Arsenal £90m over 15 years. Wenger argued the Etihad agreement drove a truck through what was then called financial fair play.

In this, Wenger resembles another Frenchman, Christophe Bassons, who during the 1999 Tour de France used his column in Le Parisien to highlight his concerns about doping in the race. He was ostracised by much of the peloton and eventually left the Tour after being told by his team to stop speaking to the media about doping.

He continued to pedal furiously as the leaders pulled away, season by season, transfer deal by transfer deal. Of course, Wenger stayed too long, measuring his success in FA Cups rather than league titles.

Even had Manchester City been removed from the equation, he would not have won another Premier League title. But it might explain why Sir Alex Ferguson warmed to him in their later years.

Ferguson, who once never missed an opportunity for a barbed comment towards the Arsenal manager, came to treat Wenger as a kindred spirit. Wenger would joke: "It is because I am no longer a threat to him."