Arsene Wenger has once more talked up the qualities of his current squad, and says he’s looking for special players to add to the mix.
Again pressed on potential transfers ahead of the Fenerbahce game, the Arsenal manager said he didn’t have a specific number of players in mind but was still optimistic that deals would be done before the window closes.
“We don’t have a fixed number,” he said. “I am guided by my conscience to do as well as I can for this club and the vision of the gamed I want to play. I feel with the players I have we can play the football we want to play.
“I am a great admirer of the spirit and attitude of these players. They are special and if I want to add something it has to be special. I am still optimistic and I hope I will not disappoint you.”
Of course people will point to transfers that weren’t that special, but to be fair to the manager he’s more or less gotten rid of all those players and the issues people have at the moment are more to do with the lightness of the squad than the players we do have being not good enough.
Wenger refused to be drawn on names, as the likes of Angel di Maria, Benzema and Wayne Rooney were put to him, citing managers throwing their toys out of their prams as other football managers do what football managers do.
“I will not give you any names, because it would be unfair for the players who play at another club,” he said. “It could, as well, create some wrong hopes.
“You could see that many of the disputes you have all over the country is because the coaches or the managers speak about the players.
“In our job, just be discreet and try to make things happen. That’s what we try to do.”
And showing he’s not exactly deaf to criticism, he quipped, “Yes, you can come back to me and say ‘You don’t make things happen!'”
7 days. Come on Arsene, pull a few out of the hat.
Players.
Not rabbits.
Unless they were player sized rabbits. That would be awesome.
Arsene at the moment is more discreet than the Milk Tray man!
you reckon CR7- special or chu young park -special?
has anyone noticed a slow but gradual change in how arsene speaks abt transfer in the last 15 days?? you know, since the start of pre-season, untill a couple of weeks ago, arene used say things like, we are trying, we are looking, we want top, top quality, and other vague sentences that never got quite anywhere……….. but now, and although the situation hasn’t changed one bit(except we have seen the worst and the pretty good from the same limited set of players), arsene has been talking much more straight-forwardly like i am going to make the signing of few… Read more »
Hi, please don’t type ‘abt’ instead of ‘about’ etc.
Please read the comment policy – http://news.arseblog.com/comment-policy/. Thanks.
WTF
A little less harsh blogs, had to read the comment twice before i noticed the “abt” error. Minor omission like this should be excusable in my opinion as long as the abbreviations are not overused, rendering the comments utterly clumsy or unreadable. My opinion 🙂
Also his ellipses (…) are way too long. Should be 3 dots maximum! Clearly this idiot does not follow the Chicago Manual of Style for commenting on your blog like everyone else…
No “abt”, eh?
Well well, that’s knackered the guy who posts under the moniker Amauary Bischoff. His posts are explosions of grammar – free confusion and unintentional hilarity, peppered with plenty of txt spk.
I wasn’t harsh. It was just a polite reminder as he might not have been aware of the comment policy.
Leave poor mr. blogs alone.
He puts an apostrophe in “hasn’t” and bothered with an (incorrect) dash/hyphen in “straight-forwardly”, so I’m sure that’s just a minor slip.
It may not have been harsh but it certainly was Harsh.
See what I did there bloggsy?
Knckrs, twst.
Can we stay if we promise to behave? [blimey, he’s in a bad mood].
Harsh blogs (see two above)…… oh ho yes I’m here all week.
Tits. Can I not delete that? Just realised to my horror that (a) that was a terrible joke and (b) that was a terrible already used joke.
right, sorry.
I support your rules normally, but in this case I feel I must protest. You clearly have a policy of discrimination against genealogists. We use Abt all the time and Bef and Aft too. These are not text speak. They are in daily use by gazillions of family historians. They are used when you haven’t got the foggiest idea when Great Aunt Clara was born but you can tell from the wrinkles that she’s really really old, like Elton John only with more hair. I bet you are just jealous of us because you don’t know if you had a… Read more »
heard victor moses might want out of chelsea. the boy is talented, a loan deal for him wouldn’t be too bad, will make a good temporary replacement for the ox.
thumb downers, please explain why? moses is a winger, we need a winger. he won’t need time to adapt to premier league, we need players who are ready to play. he is nigerian, kanu was from nigeria. I fail to see the reason for not wanting him.
I haven’t decided if it would be good or bad. He’s a good player but do we want to give a chavski player playing time. It was different with Benny Owen as we were broke then and he was already a very experienced player but …
If he was available to buy at a sensible price then I’d probably say yes, but It would have to be cheap as he gets dragged off to the ACN every 2 years.
I cannot believe I just read that. He’s a winger with PL experience from Nigeria and Kanu was Nigerian so we should sign him. Wenger is talking about signing special players and you choose Moses on loan from Chelsea. Wrong Chelski player, we should be aiming for Mata- he is a special player, and what we need
reckon we should go for Hulk, much better than Moses! he wasnt happy at Zenit last year, and im guessing we have decent relations with the club (arshavin bought from, loaned to) so it wouldnt be too much of a stretch for it to be a possibility. considering anzhi have had a clear out, maybe zenit would consider moving him on as he hasnt exactly been what they were hoping for.. and apparently we do have some money to spend.. =) we should also try and get Kaka. Hardly been used over the past few years, and its a waste… Read more »
Victor Moses is shit and probably on very high wages. I don’t know why Chelsea bought him in the first place, but probably the same reason City bought Scott Sinclair: too much money and not enough sense.
We need players who will offer positive contributions, rather than simply fill space. If we want bodies, we might as well stick with Park and Bendtner.
Come on you Wenger. Spend da tings!
Can’t help but think we’ve heard him use this superlative before. In fact just before we signed Park.
However… Player sized rabbits would be amazing.
Signing Park wasn’t Arsene’s fault. He was very unwell at the time and wasn’t thinking straight.
Where is Park anyways?
Hiding from koreans army parole officer…
I heard he went to the park
I bet that when Wenger starts talking about transfers journalists go on snooze mode and then use something from Wenger’s previous conference. From 5 years ago…
Or they just make something up!
That means he is not signing anyone
No it doesn’t. It just means he’s not saying anything until it’s done, which is the Arsenal way and has been for many (many) years.
“Yes, you can come back to me and say ‘You don’t make things happen!’”
Under pressure dummdumm dummdurududummdumm, under pressure dummdumm dummdummdurududummdumm.
It’s just all so … sigh …
Arsene oozes class, doesn’t he? I mean, any manager would spill some names just to keep away from the fan abuse.
Shudder to think of the day, Arsene hangs his boots. Wattay classless world of football it’d be!
Okay now, a couple of players please.
If only he oozed enough class to get real with improving the squad
If only you knew enough to understand that you know less than Wilshire, who said last week that Wenger is “a great manager and people who question his ability are ridiculous.”
Let me correct you, Arsene WAS a great Manager. As for Arsene being class for not throwing names let me remind you this HE HAS NO NAMES TO THROW, he is signing no one part from Flamini and Cabaye from Newcastle and good night.
Get ready for finding an excuse for him after he signs no one!!!!.
I recently watched an old(ish) video of Arsene on youtube (I think it was Arsene’s XI), and all I could think was how much I miss seeing him happy. He looks like he’s aged about 20 years in the last 5. He is a man who hates losing. I remember Adams recounting how Wenger threw his FA cup runners’ up medal in the bin after we lost to Liverpool in 2001 and Tony had to go and pick it out and make him keep it. Anyway, what a man. He’s got some serious work to do to establish himself once… Read more »
What a wonderful comment jackjackjack. IN ARSENE WE TRUST
Amen
Every gooner has love for Arsene, but that shouldn’t blind you from looking at things objectively and asking the question, is he good enough to take Arsenal forward. Let’s all hope that this season he can find some of his old warhorse mentality.
You’re spot on mate. One of the reasons I LOVE this club.
One of the reasons why former players DO want to come back and DO come back.
This is by far the classiest club in the league. That’s why it pains me so much that some of our fans are acting like that bunch of twats down the lane.
and the other half are acting like nazis because other people have a different opinion
its not the different opinions that bothers me, its the ridiculous ones.
No problems with opinions, lots of problems with abuse of players and the manager.
So much class that he implied I could not pass my own judgment on Arsenal’s transfer failing this summer, that I was somehow brainwashed. So much class that he blamed the media for the defeat against Villa.
Arsene constantly belittles anyone that criticizes him, that’s not classy.
For years Arsenal have been 2-3 players short of challenging, this summer we are 5-6 players short, come May, we will have been 2-3 players short once again. Arsene is a top manager for sure, he’s also deluded.
So then you believe that the media hasn’t brainwashed the arsenal support even “a little” – that’s what he said?
You know who belittles Wenger’s critics? That would be Jack Wilshire, who went on record to say that Wenger is “a great manager and people who question his ability are ridiculous.”
Many players have backed him in the last few years at various times when he was under pressure.
Some big names too.
Fabregas, Van Persist, et al.
Wilshire got his break for club and country under Wenger. Jack has never played in a side that has won anything at the senior level. Hardly best placed.
I love Jack but was disappointed with his veiled threat to fans that he would leave if Wenger goes. It’s also very clear it was an emotional argument asnhe i
He didn’t blame the media for the Villa defeat, He blamed them for the ‘unrest’ with the supporters! And he was correct.
Transfer failing to do what exactly? To do what YOU want them to do? Well, you are not setting the club’s short, mid, nor long term strategy and that’s not a reson to consider them to be ‘deluded’, right? By the way, check out the club net transfer spending year by year for a coulple of last few years and think what would be the next number in that series – would it be -70mil? Do you really think it’s a good idea to spend in one year the money earned by years of selling the best players? Are you… Read more »
Perhaps it’s on the back of two good victories or because Man City lost yesterday – heh! – but I’m feeling pretty optimistic about us doing well this season providing AW signs a few decent players – who would you guys like to see brought in in defence, for instance?
Would like to see ashley williams as hes more the cool head in the per mould. He would compliment kos and vermalens stick your head in anywhere type approach and wouldn’t cost a whole pile.
That’s the thing, I don’t even know who is available apart from Ashley (by the way, I agree – defensively, he’s one of the best readers of a game).
I had the feeling that this was the season we’d finally sign Jags from Everton.
I know he’s not a back. But Michu would be a wonderful signing, cheap(ish), Spanish (settle in well with our Spanish contingent) and he could be a back up for giroud or any of our midfield because of his versatility.
The only thing I don’t like about the potential signing of Ashley Williams is that he’s shit.
Any word on if Samba is available? I’ve heard he’s still very tall.
I second that mate
The Ashley bit..cuz if he’s shit then Samba is just a bigger pile of the same.
Samba is indeed still tall, but market forces dictate he’s got to be sold for £12m every 6 months for eternity. Otherwise the world will end.
We’ve had a lot worse than Williams over the last few years blogs. Not a lot available at centre half but we are certainly short of one. Williams wouldn’t be a bad back up.
Yes, we’ve had worse, Deano. Which is why it would be nice to have something a lot better.
In which case, would it not be better to move Sagna to CB as he has all attributes for a CB – reading the game, heading, tackling, and pace as a bonus. Yes it will take time to retrain him a bit, but it can also prolong his career with us for another 2-3 years. And getting decent RBs should not be that big a challenge or risk.
Sagna is our backup 4th choice CB. More chance of us getting a RB than another CB.
I agree, more likely Arsene signs a backup right back and plans to use Sagna in the center
Sagna has a had some injury problems over last couple of seasons as has TV5. Think we need a spare CB.
And then he said “There are no special players in the market” afterwards.
‘Top top top’ players versus ‘special players’…
I can’t make up my mind as to which I’d prefer…
special……… if u asked anyone name the top,top,top players in the world, nobody, perhaps not even arsenal fans would say names like ramsey…….. but ask for special, ramsey certainly makes the cut……
Eureka! Somebody finally found out the real reason we have not signed any players.
So, that’s a no on Ocelots?
What about a snake? snake snnaaaaaaaaaakkkkkeeee !
I got the Metal Gear Solid reference.
Have a thumbs up 🙂
STOP TALKING WENGER AND GO BUY SOMEONE!!!!!!!!!Wenger loves getting players late and cheap if it works we’ll be happy if not we’re going to be left short or with players so “special” clubs could afford to let them leave without replacements on the final day of the transfer market. I think everyone would take a giant rabbit over bendtner staying at arsenal. Is monreal a morphing rabbit?
We have to come through tomorrows game then we might get a couple of signings or hopefully more on board.
I guess if they didn’t have mandatory press conferences he’d probably stop talking. I know i would.
Even after all that has happened, Still keeping the faith hoping he brings in atleast four quality signings. Fingers crossed..
Me too…but come this time next Monday I don’t think all the deals will be done…
Also the reaction to Cardiff’s win over Man City, the criticism levelled at the club, is in stark contrast to the reaction Arsene and the club received last week. Makes you realise what a load of old bollocks football can be sometimes.
Mad isn’t it. We get beaten by Villa after some very fucking suspect refereeing and it’s the fucking apocalypse, fire and brimstone, the ground swallowing us up. City get done up by bloody Cardiff and it’s “meh, look how great the Premier League is” (though my reaction was more along the lines of “hahahhahaha. cunts.”)
As others (blogs as well) have pointed out, the reaction was about more than the loss. It was about failing to find a suitable backup for Arteta, for seeing Koscielny sent off and us left with 1 CB, and in general a summers worth of frustration boiling over as, after all the talk, Arsenal could not deliver on one signing (sorry Sanogo, you were free).
I don’t think City fans have the same kind of worries about lack of investment while the owners sit on a pile of money, made from the fans of said club.
Although the loss was far more complicated than being simply a result of our not spending during the window, I also think a level of frustration and anger from the fans was justified. However, the way we were portrayed as a club in crisis, on the brink of collapse – after one game, was completely insane. We were hit ridiculously hard by injuries, ridiculous refereeing decisions, and Villa hit us on the break as we chased the game. It was nothing to lose our minds about. We still have quality players, the window is still open, and there’s still a… Read more »
I don’t rely on the media to form my opinion, certainly not the low-grade football level “journalism”.
The media is a straw man Wenger uses to deflect criticism.
“Arsenal could not deliver on one signing (sorry Sanogo, you were free)”
This tells us all we need to know: you’re apparently not even really concerned about how/whether the squad improves, because according to you players don’t count unless they require a transfer fee.
City don’t have an investment problem, and yet they have one fit center back after buying the greatest attack in EPL. And even he is way too shite compared to Per. And we are a club in crisis. What now, City will play a formation of 1-2-3-4?
Most Man City fans don’t know that Manchester is a city. They think it has something to do with the bedsheets their owners are wearing over their Armani suits.
“I am guided by me conscience to do as well as I can for this club…..”
He’s not learned that in the south-east.
haha, fixed now. Thanks.
Thought it was strange that Wenger had developed an Irish accent.
Jeez!!! Why do I have the feeling that he won’t do any signing…
It’s just a light case of deja vu
nothing so far, tick, tock, tick, tock Arsene – no decent signings for us find a new club for yourself
Why dont you find a new club to support?
Wenger’s done more for the club than you’ll ever do in your pathetic life
Putting money into a club I love is something that should be dissuaded, sounds about right at this point
Ugh, I loathe such passive-aggressive football fans.
I let my conscience guide me too….but after being informed that I am brainwashed somehow I need to reassess my whole life now, instead of just Arsenal needing Fellaini.
I wish Arsene would have told us we were brainwashed before August 26th so we could prepare…..
oh wait.
Large rabbits remind me of Frank
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw9YfZF48_U
He’d put the shits up defenders, in fairness.
Player size rabbits. scaring the defenders.
Do you mean Suarez?
That works!
Hehe scaring and scarring the defenders simultaneously.
Step aside Bugs Bunny, it’s the Racist Rabbit Show!!
I hate Sp*rs
Sorry, besides tomorrow the game on the weekend is all I think we have to look forward to right now.
(ready to be proved wrong!)
I think you are wrong. I don’t think that will be the end of the world. Spurs next weekend will not be our last ever game.
But if it is we are going out on a win.
Top top very very top top top… Top top very very top top top. Hey this can be made into a secret handshake. *clap clap shake shake clap clap clap* Picture it.
Cabaye is coming, or is the closest at the moment. I expect Flamini to be another. I have a feeling Kondogbia could be in our radar. Not sure about keepers! Finally, our star signing could be Di Maria or Rooney.
Does anyone have a view on martinez from porto? his name keeps popping up but i do not watch enough of porto to have an opinion.
Man city is beter than arsenal if they lose or they win
Then i hope they keep losing and being better at the same time.
If that is true then they have no incentive to win when a loss will still be better than Arsenal. Is that what happened on Sunday.
“Hey, we’re better than Arsenal. Why bother trying? Let’s lose and look like wankers.”
Same old story we here every day…my fingers are crossed though…#gunners4life#
CR7-special or Park ji “military” sung special?
I know this is bad but, I immediately thought of Wenger scouting the Down Syndrome football teams when I saw that headline.
ah jayzuz lad…
Come on mate, this isn’t a Sp*ds blog.
You’re a fucking cunt mate.
Blogs – if the comment policy prohibits people from using ‘abt’ instead of about etc (which I fully support, by the way), then surely there must be room to get rid of brainless dicks making completely unrelated and disgusting comments about the disabled?
Are you referring to the DS or the spuddies (or both?)?
I think Wenger has something up his sleeve that will surprise us all
Like what a new zipless coat for the winter?
That definitely would. Maybe he can get paul lambert’s pullover.
http://youtu.be/sFOFDDnm9nk
Sign him up
No, we can’t do that. It would kill Squirrel Regis’ career. Arsene will never allow that to happen.
The music is fantastic!
Awesome. He’s got that whole Super Tom going-full-circle-turn-to-twine-a-player going on!
Keeps the ball well and a marketable face. Sign him up.
Hleb
Now thats how to do a 360
Who does he think he is wanting special players,he really needs to pull his head out off his arse,hes missing out on the special players coz he bids to low for them,and i dont blame them not wanting to come to us coz the lack of silverware over the years and the way the club is run is to do with it as well i reckon….wage structure etc etc…..so we may hope for more silly freebies thats all we seem to get….wish he would just resign he has had his days in charge.
You’re about 9 days behind the rest of us mate. Update your complaints. Keep up, Man!
Heard a second team is in for monkey boy is that you arsene?
Never. A second bidder would drive up the price, ultimately giving Spurs more money. We don’t want that.
So Spurs apparently have a second offer for Bale to “consider”. Wenger probably offered them £1. Ordinarily this wouldn’t have been enough, however, he has also tempted Bale with a weekly wage of a bunch of bananas. Bale has clinically stated that he would prefer a move to Arsenal, purely because he feels that we understand his need (for bananas) better than Real Madrid’s offer of £300 000 per week. This came about when Bale tried to eat a stack of notes, only to unhappily spit them out saying: “Worst bananas ever.” Don’t hold your breath lads, I feel a… Read more »
Ya have a funny feeling about this..First he says we will buy,.. then now he needs someone special..0n the Nov 3rd he’ll say he did not find someone special!!
Not that I disagree with you, but I really don’t want the abominable transfer window to go on for two months longer than it currently runs for.
Why can’t AW beautifully ‘parkage’ Park and take him to park, we might be lucky Q’Park may cherry picked him.
We will definitely come back to you wenger if you fail to bring in special players.
In other news, have you seen the new yellow&blue training kit? Training kits rarely look any good but my God this one is UGLY!
He also had a pop at the press for winding the fans up, re expectations My expectations came from all the positive statements from the club pre season ticket sales and nothing to do with the press.
That and the fact that we finished miles behind an average Man U team last year and so I thought the club may want to invest in some players that would help us compete. That’s where my expectations come from.
The comments now being tailored towards an acceptance that we may not
Wenger will be signing new players, and he’ll be the only one to sign them after the transfer deadline day!! He’ll be signing Vermaelen and Arteta some time in September or October, and of course Arsenal will be the only team to have a new signing next April in Diaby!!
I know he is answering to reporters’ questions, but does he really need to make such ridiculous statements? It is just getting embarrassing.
Long ago in school i learnt the first thing about computers – it was called Garbage In Garbage Out. Applies beautifully here.
Off course,We dont want to pay special prize.
Arsen has now got what he promised “almost”champions leaque football which opens the type and quality of player who will come to the Arsenal.
And has like me believe he has recognised in the past some of the players he signed just to pad out the numbers in the squad just is not good enough we need quality big money signing from now on.
And I mean established 25 years old and over and not kids but with 10million and over price tag.
‘Quality’ doesn’t have to mean ‘big money’.
If it did then we could have paid 35m for a big geordie bloke last year!
A few superstar straws at which to grasp, seeing as this Benzema thing looks quite unlikely to go through: 1) A considerably improved bid for Suarez after we take care of Fener and officially qualify for the CL group stage. LFC have been doing well enough without him, there might be some contract-clause atmospherics tied to formal CL qualification, and the “we can’t sell late in the window because we can’t replace him” argument by Brenda holds even less water in Suarez’s case than in most others because Luis is going to miss out on a considerable amount of the… Read more »
“…I want to add something it has to be special, competitive, economical, low-cost, low-priced, reasonable, at a bargain, bargain, bargain basement, bargain-counter, bought for a song, budget, cheapo, cost next to nothing, cut-price star, cut-rate star, easy on the pocketbook, half-priced star, lowered, marked down, reduced, slashed, a steal.”
“Did I say special?”
I assume that Wenger is planning a surprise move for Messi or Ronaldo then…
The very fact that we are scrabbling for signings with 7 days to go in the transfer window–Summer of 2011 anyone?–points to one of three factors: incompetence, mis-judgement, or stubbornness. With the number of the names that have been mentioned in conjunction with us, could we just lack the decisive, transfer-savvy ability to nail down big name signings? It seems unlikely. A club of Arsenal’s stature has to have the ability. And so it comes down to the other two. In my humble opinion, it’s a combination of both. Arsene mentioned how the early summer signings of Cavani and Falcao… Read more »
secret leaked… Arsenal had mae a £70m bid for Gareth Bale. And tottenham seem to appreciate doing business with Arsenal rather than the big-mouthed Madrid. Arsene at it again.
How many great players are left out there? This is like turning up at ASDA five minutes before closing time on a saturday afternoon. The real juicy deals have all gone through already.
Get ready for a supermarket sweep of mediocrity. Wenger’s criteria for purchasing will be cheepness and ready availability, so just waych as he snaps up more Bendtners, Parks and Santoses.
The question should be ‘How many great players are out there?’
Because there aren’t that many out there at all.
Despite average/good players costing great player money this year.
Unless we sign mata, DiMaria, Flamini and Williams. That would be some supermarket sweep eh fatgooner?
What exactly is special in arsenes head??
Am I the I only 1 or are fellow gooners puzzled by this ‘special’ term he uses..remember him using it in January windows to keep us expecting and then nothing happens..