Ah! The truth is finally out: Arsenal are a selling club. What else explains them selling their best players in their prime before their value declines?  Why else are they choosing to develop youngsters, fully knowing that their best years lie elsewhere?

This is not a club players are supposed to feel loyal to, or where they can grow old. Arsene Wenger has confessed as much that he is a farmer breeding a livestock of footballers to sell as commodities in the transfer market. When the price is right, everything’s all right.

With this philosophy in mind, he has just made Arsenal a magnet for every able-bodied boy of 16 to 18 who aspires to be a footballer but who cannot break through at his own club or in his own league. Here is a club with an interest in giving youth a chance to fatten up in the grind of the Premier League.

Added to that is the chance for the young and ambitious to establish a name among the elite in the Champions League. For those that make the grade lies the reward of a big-money move to a richer club like Barcelona, Real Madrid or even Manchester United.

For a fan, there is a certain pride in knowing that the finances of Arsenal are in good hands under Mr Wenger. The Arsenal board can rest fully confident that their manager’s policy of buying young and cheap and then selling high will keep the club afloat among the big-spenders of the Premier League.

Everyone remembers the squandering nature of Leed United’s transfer policy and what happened to the club thereafter. No one wants a repeat of that, least of all the upper echelons at the newly-acquired palatial Emirates Stadium.

But Arsenal are no ordinary public listed company where shareholders invest in success based upon its churn of profit and regular distribution of dividend. Football fans are not in it to see the swelling of their club's accounting books. Most of them will never benefit from the earnings of the club.

No. What football fans want is success on the pitch. It’s about the pride of crowing about your club’s success to your rivals who also wear red, or to the team across the road wearing white. Especially to the team across the road wearing white.

Over the last 18 months, Tottenham Hotspur have spent close to £100million on new players. In Juande Ramos, they look to have a manager who can seriously dislodge Arsenal from their perch as London’s best football club.

Manchester United may be close to losing Cristiano Ronaldo, but no one doubts that Sir Alex Ferguson has the war-chest to find a replacement, and the intent to spend whatever it takes to bring that replacement to Old Trafford.

At Chelsea, Big Phil Scolari has already incurred a minuscule dent in his sponsor’s wealth by spending large on Deco. And he promises more to follow. Rafa Benitez, if precedents are anything to go by, will not sit on his money this summer. He has emptied it several times before, not afraid of buying duds and short-term “patch-up” players. With Peter Crouch departed and with some income at hand, the market looks like his oyster to exploit.  Even Manchester City are getting into the act by offering in excess of £25million for Ronaldinho.

Anyone who says that spending does not buy you the Premier League title should check his facts. Over the years, Sir Alex and Jose Mourinho have proved that it takes dough to make dough. Manchester United’s extravagance last summer, splashing out close to £50million on just three players, wrought dividend aplenty in the shape of the Premier League and Champions League crowns.

Against the arming of his counterpart’s weaponry, does Wenger’s fiscal policy stand a chance? Last season, Arsenal looked to prove their detractors wrong by actually threatening to steal the Premier League crown after spending a pittance and turning a profit in the summer’s transfer activities.

Instead of strengthening his squad in the winter with new players that his team desperately needed, Arsene revelled in his ability to turn a quick buck for Lassana Diarra. No one understood why Arsene would sell the talented Frenchman – not until now.

The Diarra episode shows that Wenger is driven more by profit than the need to win anything. Any claim that they are competitive blows hollow in their actions of wanting to sell the best and play only the “second-best” or those who “promise to get better”.  Such players proved last year that they cannot stand up to the pressures of a title run-in.

It strikes me that Arsene’s announcement that they are a selling club has opened that Pandora’s Box where opponents, realising the growing challenge of Arsenal, will try to pry away their best and leave them weakened. Better if it can be done mid-season to derail their run-in.

Why would the wily Arsene want others - especially his own players - to know that all of them are, sooner or later, expendable? It distracts the players themselves who will be tempted by better offers instead of concentrating on their football, knowing their future is secure. Maybe that’s why Real Madrid or Barcelona constantly keep trying to tempt Cesc Fabregas away during the January transfer window.

It also exposes Arsene’s policy of never buying proven but expensive players. So Arsenal fans have no hope of seeing the best and the brightest at Arsenal. No Ronaldinho, no Andrei Arshavin, no David Villa et cetera. In other words, no need for other teams to fear Arsenal.

Like all boyfriends in long-term relationships holding on to their girlfriends with whispers of marriage, all Arsenal have are promises, but no diamond ring to show. In a cynical word, Arsene’s comment seems to confirm his intent to make himself indispensable to Arsenal, thus cementing his future at the club.

Who else but he can consistently transform promising players to deliver Champions League spots year after year? Given that the board endorses his fiscal policy as success without demanding he win the commensurate silverware to show for it, who else but he among all Premier League managers enjoys more autonomy and popularity than boards around the league accord most managers?

Arsenal’s long-term strategy and survival ability depends on Wenger and he balancing the books.  Everything else – trophies, player loyalty etc – becomes a secondary consideration. It’s something Arsenal fans have come to accept over the past four years.

But if the Rafa-lution, Big Phil or - God forbid - Juande start delivering on their investments, how long will Arsenal fans stay on the fiscal wagon? How many times must the Arsenal fans see their best products at the Nou Camp before they say enough is enough?

Last season, Adebayor was perhaps Arsenal’s best player. Naturally, he is expected to depart before August. Next season, Robin van Persie and Fabregas will probably shine. That latter had an outstanding summer at Euro 2008. That signals the upcoming campaign will be their farewell season at the Emirates Stadium.

Arsenal fans should do well to remember that Cesc himself is Catalan, and that his idol is now the manager at Barcelona. Oh well, after next season when Cesc departs, there’s always Fran Merida. Who? Some not familiar will ask. Not to worry, you’ll get a glimpse of the next Arsenal star before he, too, leaves for bigger things.