As Glasgow Rangers are getting ready to start their Emirates Cup campaign, manager Walter Smith praised all the work Arsene Wenger has done at Arsenal.

Smith told Rangers News:

If you take into account the things Arsene has won, he has achieved a lot and handled his club very well financially.

When you consider they were building a new stadium and their outgoings were restricted by that, they have done very well. They haven’t had the luxury of being able to spend the same amounts of money the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool have spent.

Arsene has done a fantastic job there to keep his team in touch with those other three and to keep producing a high level of football. He obviously has a scouting policy of looking in depth at young players and, when you do that, you’re always at the mercy of clubs that will spend lots of money.

There are clubs in England and abroad who will spend cash and Arsenal have benefited from that.

When Arsene’s club’s finances have been drained because of the money going toward the new stadium, it has been a big achievement to keep Arsenal in touch with the rest.

I’ve come across Arsene on a number of occasions, both when I was the manager of Everton and since then as well.

That said, I don’t think you need to meet him or know him to have a great amount of admiration for the man.

He’s now in his 14th season at Arsenal and that’s fantastic. Everybody always looks at his teams and talks about what a fantastic level of football they play.

He had a great level of success with players who had already been at the club and gradually evolved to play in a manner his team has played in in recent years. Arsene isn’t somebody who came in and discarded everyone right away but still did very well.

That’s good management and I think you can look at him as one of the best we’ve had in Britain over the last 25 years or so.