file - Arsenal's manager Arsene Wenger

LONDON (AP)

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger yesterday criticised clubs that aggressively try to lure away contracted players, but Real Madrid counterpart Bernd Schuster said it is now just part of football and attacked English clubs for poaching young Spaniards.

"There is a game going on in Europe where the big clubs tap up our players," Wenger said. "They let us do the work and develop the players and then they think they can just come in and offer him big wages, but after they cannot come up with the transfer request.

"It should be the other way round."

The comments came shortly after Arsenal's top striker Emmanuel Adebayor agreed to stay at the London club after being promised an improved contract, ending speculation he would move to FC Barcelona and AC Milan.

Real Madrid, who face Arsenal in the Emirates Cup tomorrow were warned about the potential legal consequences of inducing a player to breach his contract without just cause after Manchester United complained to FIFA about its pursuit of Cristiano Ronaldo.

Wenger said clubs need reminding that if an approach for a player is rejected they must not continue pursuing him.

"We were destabilised by some clubs who did not respect the fair play rule in tapping up players," he said. "I think we suffered from that at the end of the season. We haven't done that, but that has been done to us."

Schuster responded by accusing English clubs of double standards, making a veiled reference to Wenger enticing the 16-year-old Cesc Fabregas from FC Barcelona in 2003 after the midfielder rose through the Catalan club's youth structure.

"I think it is a very fashionable thing to do these things when you start tapping up young players," Schuster said through a translator at the Emirates stadium. "When they come from England and poach young players in Spain it is something happening all the time in the world of football.

"Almost anything goes ... I don't know if we will be able to stop these things."

Schuster would not discuss Madrid's ongoing hopes of signing Ronaldo or Chelsea's pursuit of Robinho.

"You have to ask other people in the club," he said.