Arsene starts the fire:
"On one hand you want the England national team to have a four-week break before the World Cup in 2006. But then you don't want to give them a holiday after a long and exhausting season.
"I cannot see how it is defendable instead of giving them a break. Before a World Cup year they could have six weeks' rest to regenerate their bodies completely.
"Suddenly someone has decided that you have to have four weeks off before the World Cup starts. I'm sorry, but I have seen very good World Cups without the four weeks beforehand.
"You also get bad teams with four weeks' preparation. What happens is the season ends, they have one week's rest, then they prepare for two weeks and then travel to Germany. That one week's rest will not change anything. The biggest rest they can have is this summer. They could have six weeks' rest where they regenerate completely.
"It takes six weeks to heal all the micro-traumas completely. In one week you have a breather then you come back. But this summer is more important.
"I think if you want to give your players the best chance, it is important they have a good break this year, 12 months before."
Fergie threathens to withdraw some of our players:
"We will assess who wants to go. Sometimes players want to go on these tours, sometimes they don't. Sometimes they need a rest and the players who are playing for clubs at the very top of the League, the Chelsea players, the Arsenal players, the United players, they have got a harder season than the others. And the Liverpool players this year are in the same boat."
But just as it seemed that the feuding rivals were about to agree on something, Wenger said it would be wrong for Fergie to withhold his players.
"This tour makes no physiological sense. You want to rest the players before the World Cup. If Alex Ferguson says he will stop his players going I feel that makes it even worse because it makes a farce of the whole tour.
"If you go over there without your best players, England will not be well represented and the public will be cheated.
"You cannot go there without the players of Manchester United, Chelsea or Arsenal and say you are representing England. It is better if you go with the under-21s. I am not for this tour - I am against it."