LONDON -- Arsene Wenger has insisted he's not afraid to spend in the transfer market, while also rejecting Thierry Henry's claim that top players don't seem willing to join Arsenal anymore.
Granit Xhaka is Arsenal's only major signing this summer though they are looking for a centre-back and a striker before the window closes.
Frustrations among the fans boiled over after Arsenal lost their season-opening game to Liverpool 4-3 on Sunday, while playing with two young centre-backs -- 20-year-old debutant Rob Holding and Calum Chambers.
Arsenal have been in discussions with Valencia over a deal for Germany international Shkodran Mustafi, but talks have reportedly stalled over the transfer fee.
Wenger refused to discuss any individual players at his news conference on Thursday, but said Arsenal aren't being too frugal.
"You are absolutely convinced that I don't want to spend the money," he said. "I would just like to reassure you we are ready to spend the money we have as always. Not the money we haven't got. And it's not my money.
"Buying calms the fans down of course. But first of all you have always to be convinced by the quality of the player. Before you pay over the odds you have to be convinced that the player is good enough to strengthen your squad.
"And you have then to make a decision how much you pay over the odds. That is not the basic problem."
Wenger also responded to some pointed questions from Henry on Sky Sports after the Liverpool game, when the Gunners great questioned whether the club can still attract top talent.
Arsenal will face Leicester striker Jamie Vardy at the King Power Stadium on Saturday after he rejected a move to the Emirates in favour of a new deal with the Foxes But Wenger dismissed the notion that players don't view Arsenal as a top destination.
"I don't feel that, no," he said. "We have plenty of players who want to join us. I would say even all the players who left, 99.5 percent of players have asked to come back even when they left. He's [Henry] one of them. So I don't think there's a problem to attract players."
Henry returned for a short loan stint in 2012 while playing for the New York Red Bulls and was part of the academy coaching staff last season. He left that job this summer in order to continue working as a TV pundit.
Arsenal have spent £30 million on signing Xhaka from Borussia Monchengladbach, after not bringing in a single outfield player last summer and only adding Mohamed Elneny for £5m in January.
Wenger defended his record of being selective in the transfer market, saying the club's success has been built on making the right buys rather than the most buys.
"What I fight against is to think as well that the only way in football to deal with is to buy," he said. "It is right when you need the players, and you identify the players. We are not scared to spend the money.
"But to buy in itself is not a quality. To buy the good players is a quality. And I think this club has been built on that. If we have had success in the last 20 years in improving our structures, the main thing is based on the transfer policy.
"You have many examples of people who have spent huge amounts of money on central defenders who have not made it. And that's why everybody is in the market for the same players, and very few players as well."
That could be a reference to Eliaquim Mangala, who was bought for £42m by Manchester City two years ago but never settled in the Premier League and has been widely linked with a move away from the Etihad after Pep Guardiola took over as manager this summer.
Wenger said English clubs, who are enjoying the riches of a new TV deal for the Premier League, could run into long-term problems by continually overspending on players.
"You could say today you have two markets, one for English clubs and one for the rest of Europe," he said. "The danger of the English situation at the moment is that the English clubs can suffocate themselves on the longer period.
"Why? Because they buy players at a very high price. That means there's always very high wages linked with it. And if they are wrong, they will have these players with high wages that cannot get anywhere.
"You start seeing the first signs now of English clubs having to pay massive wages even when the players go out, they have to pay half of their wages.
"So on the longer period, that means the financial advantage that the English clubs have will drop. Because on their wage list they will pay 10 or 12 players who have gone somewhere else, but the clubs where they go cannot pay their wages."