Reyes - no Real bid says WengerArsene Wenger has hit out at Real Madrid for unsettling Arsenal winger Jose Antonio Reyes.
The Spaniard was last week left out of the Champions League qualifier against Dinamo Zagreb as Wenger felt the continued transfer speculation had affected the 22-year-old's focus.
Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon has now claimed they will not be held to ransom by Arsenal over any prospective deal.
Wenger, however, today rejected claims a fee had even been offered as a "complete bluff" - and launched a scathing attack on the way the Spanish giants had conducted themselves.
"They unsettle the player, they come in with no offer at all, it is a complete bluff," Wenger declared.
"There are some things you can always understand, but they are more difficult to accept.
"From a big club like Real Madrid you do not expect them to unsettle the player and say, 'sorry we have no money, not one penny to spend on him,' and that is it, thank you very much." said Wenger: "It has affected him [Reyes] very badly.
"Not only him - but you have players who are destabilised and in the end you cannot even make a choice 'do we sell him or not?' because there is no-one to sell to."
The Arsenal boss continued: "In the end, they leave players completely lost on another planet. They have no consideration for the interest of the player."
Meanwhile, Wenger admits it will be "terrible for the Premiership" if Chelsea walk away with the title again.
Wenger remains determined to close the gap on Chelsea, who ran away with the championship for a second successive campaign and have further strengthened their ranks with the summer signings of German captain Michael Ballack and Ukrainian hitman Andriy Shevchenko.
"They have bigger names in the team," said Wenger. "If they are stronger, then it is terrible for the Premiership because last year it was nearly won in February."
The Arsenal chief admits it will be a step into the "unknown" when he leads the team out for their first competitive match at the Emirates Stadium tomorrow.
The Gunners will open the post-Highbury era against Martin O'Neill's Aston Villa at their new £390million, 60,000-seater home in Ashburton Grove.
Wenger admits he felt Arsenal's famous old home had a "special soul", and accepts it may take time to get a similar feeling among the new surroundings.
"We go a little bit into an unknown place," he said.
"We have not the same feeling we had at Highbury yet.
"We had a special soul there, when you came in the morning you felt at home. It will take 10 games to create that."
Wenger also knows the importance of making the impressive stadium an intimating venue for opposing sides, having been so used to managing in the compact atmosphere at Highbury since his arrival at the club almost a decade ago.
He said: "We want to win the title this year, so therefore the first target is to be strong at home.
"To create a home feeling it is first important to win the games there.
"It has advantages because we have a bigger support, bigger crowd and bigger pitch - but we will keep the same quality on the pitch."
Other clubs, such as Southampton, Derby and Sunderland, have failed to produce competitive sides to match their illustrious new surroundings and long-term form suffered as a consequence.
Wenger, though, is convinced Arsenal have enough talent already within the squad to make a seamless transition.
"Most of the time they [clubs] had to make choices between the stadium and the team," he said.
"Can you have a good team and a good stadium? That is the challenge we face this year."
Wenger's young side emerged from an inconsistent start to finish the last campaign in style as they snatched fourth place in the Barclays Premiership and reached the Champions League final for the first time in the club's history.
The manager feels the squad have learnt a lot a year down the line.
He recalled: "We lost the title at the beginning of the season basically because my team was not convinced enough how good they were. They discovered that too late in the season.
"I hope they have learnt from that. I hope they have discovered their strength from games like Real Madrid and suddenly we became a force even in the Premiership.
"I hope we can bring that feeling to the Premiership this year."
Wenger accepts one of the things his side must cope with this time around is the physical approach they often faced away.
"The main target was to out-muscle us and we had no answer," the Arsenal boss said.
"I am convinced we have since then not only improved, but we have found the way to deal with it."
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