Arsène Wenger has accused some of the biggest clubs in Europe of flouting transfer laws and destabilising Arsenal by tapping up his players. On the day that one of the summer’s longest running transfer sagas ended with Emmanuel Adebayor’s announcement that he will sign a new contract to stay at the Emirates Stadium until 2013, his manager warned other clubs to keep their hands off his players.

Adebayor has been tracked by AC Milan, Barcelona and Real Madrid this summer, but decided to stay in London after Arsenal agreed to increase his wages to about £70,000 a week. “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 them big wages, but after they cannot come up with the transfer fee. It should be the other way round.”

Bernd Schuster, the Real Madrid coach, denied last night that his club had ever tapped up players. “It’s not something that we are guilty of,” Schuster said. “Anything goes in football and it happens all the time, but I don’t know if it can be stopped. It is very fashionable to talk about tapping up but English clubs come to Spain and poach players all the time.”

Wenger’s comments will also raise eyebrows at Barcelona, who have not forgiven the Arsenal manager for taking Cesc Fàbregas from the Spanish club’s youth academy five years ago when the Spain midfield player was 16.

Arsenal have lost Mathieu Flamini and Alexander Hleb to Milan and Barcelona respectively this summer, but Wenger was always confident that his most prolific striker would stay in London. The French manager took a gamble by signing Adebayor from

AS Monaco for £4.2 million in January 2006 and all was going well until June, when it was reported that the Togo forward was seeking a substantial pay rise — from £35,000 a week — after scoring 30 goals last season.

“When I was on holiday there was a lot of speculation, a lot of people talking on my behalf,” Adebayor said. “My phone was off, so I did not know what was happening. The most important thing is to show everyone this club has given me a lot.”

Adebayor’s decision will surprise newspapers in Barcelona, who were reporting yesterday that the Catalan club had seen off competition from Milan to sign him for £21 million. “It is good news for Arsenal fans, good news for myself and good for my family,” Adebayor said before denying that his relationship with Wenger had been strained after he suggested in an interview that he wanted to leave.

“When we started talking about my contract I never told him I would be leaving this club,” Adebayor said. “He’s like my father, he’s my boss, so whatever he tells me, I’ll do it.”

Wenger confirmed yesterday that William Gallas would continue as club captain this season.