Arsene Wenger had a front row seat the last time a major Asian nation sought to supercharge its football development with financial investment, when working with Nagoya Grampus Eight in the Japanese league in 1995, but recent events in China have left even Arsenal's veteran manager flummoxed.
"It's a surprise, it's a distortion," he said this week of Oscar's record-breaking £60 million move to Shanghai SIPG from Chelsea. "I think basically when you're a football player you want to combine the quality of the competition with the quality of your wages. But it is a surprise to me.