Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has rejected criticism from former club captain Tony Adams of their transfer policy.
Adams has been vocal in his opposition to their recent acquisition insisting it will hamper the development of their young stars.
He said earlier this month: "Why have you brought Willian into the squad? If you have got him just to make up the numbers because he has got a bit of experience, where are you going with that?
"I have cried out about the recruitment on more than one occasion. Edu is very inexperienced and they were heavily reliant on agents to get players into the club.
"All of a sudden you have got Willian, Cedric, all the same agent. We have got so many kids coming through, don't buy these players!
"You spot areas of the squad that are weak. You don't go and get Willian on a three-year contract, that is going nowhere. That is really poor sports directorship.
"We all get ones wrong, but if you are building a club to win the league then you don't fill up areas when you have good kids coming through."
Arteta though feels that they have implemented the right transfer strategy as they look to combine recruitment with utilising their academy.
He told Astro SuperSport : "Well first of all I think you have to set some very clear principles that you want to achieve and the processes that are going to be in place to try to minimise the risk every time we get a player.
"Because it's like a bet. There are a lot of things that we cannot control and a lot of things that we don't know how they are going to act.
"But if we have the right processes, and we have the right principles to apply for every single player that walks in through our door to our club, then I think we are in a much better place to make a lot of good decisions.
"When I said to you about the squad balance, it is something that is related to recruitment. First of all the squad has to look in good balance, in good shape, in good health.
"And then you can talk about taking the squad into a different level, improving the recruitment, improving the quality of the squad in the individual and specific positions that we want."
