Friday, March 29, 2024

Wenger: no emergency but we’re looking to strengthen

Arsene Wenger has said that he doesn’t consider Arsenal’s defensive situation an emergency, but that he’s ready to do business to strengthen the squad in that area.

The Gunners are without Kieran Gibbs (hamstring) and the first choice deep-lying midfielder Mikel Arteta until after the international break, but Wenger is playing it cool.

Although he said he still has to check if the German contingent are ready to play against Everton at the weekend, he said of new arrivals, “We are not in an emergency case but we are open to any opportunity to strengthen our defensive department.”

The departure of Thomas Vermaelen has left the side short of defensive options and even though Calum Chambers has filled in and Per Mertesacker’s return would ease the situation, the squad still feels short of the required depth for the season ahead.

Meanwhile, with reports that Lukas Podolski could be on the move, Wenger said, “We have had no offers for anyone to leave.”

The key word there is ‘offers’, it doesn’t rule out interest from other clubs, only that no official contact has been made as yet.

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Crispy

I think the old fox Wengers’ definition of emergency is a little different from mine.

Defensively (including CDM) we’re as thin as a thin thing that came first in a ‘i’m the thinnest’ contest.

The ‘looking to strengthen’, ‘we’re not close to signing anybody’ and ‘looking for super quality’ soundbites fill me with fear in all honesty.

Come on Arsene, make it happen mate.

Larry

After all these years you really shouldn’t pay too much attention to anything Wenger says during the transfer window 😉

“Cazorla? Never heard of that player.”

Ufuomation

After the early start of business in terms of recruiting the likes of Sanchez and Debuchy, I never thought we’ll find ourselves in this type of dilemma for the umpteenth time. Well… This too shall pass. No panic, we’re good to go.

Bee

Wenger should stop this habit of eating his breakfast during dinner. But players early so that they can settle in before the season starts. Mourinho(cunt) got his early and they’ve settled in. I still question Wengers judgement on giving the germans an extended break ,knowing fully well we have a champions league qualifier to play. Wenger should go for quality instead of quantity ,if he is keeping sanogo for being faster than giroud and keeping giroud for being stronger than sanogo ,then he can get an attacker that is fast and strong. Same for arteta and flamini ,u can get… Read more »

deejay1952

regardless of whether maureen is a c**t or not, if maureen and a dog were trotting down the road, and there was not much room to pass, I’d make sure i miss the dog.

Dylan

Sanchez, Ospina, Chambers, Debuchy before the end of July seems like a pretty early enough breakfast, and the window is not over yet In regards to the Germans extended break, Wenger hit the nail on the head when he said “I have a decision to make, do I bring them early and play them straight away and lose them in October or November or do I give them the needed rest to recover and get the hunger back?” + the mandatory 4 week holiday period he must provide them. It’s honestly so funny how (hate to use to word fickle)… Read more »

bonbonbon

Agreed, this time last year the frustration from fans was justified given that we’d lost the opening game of the season and not managed to sign anyone but this year we dug out a victory against a solid Palace side as well as keeping a clean sheet and earning a hard-fought draw against a good Turkish side in a notoriously tough place to play as an away team. Not only that but we bought one of the stars of the WC from Barcelona as well as plugged many of the necessary gaps in the squad early on. The window isn’t… Read more »

goonerbynature

If Wenger truly, truly rates a player and that player is even remotely gettable, Arsene will atleast think about him, even if we’re supposedly stocked in that area. Ozil is a good example. This year, it looked for all the world as though Debuchy and Jenkinson were our RB options, but then he splashed 16 million on another RB.

goonerbynature

Also, he’s clearly playing the market. “…the 20 top clubs in the world what they look for, they all look for the same positions, so that means it is not necessarily out there.” A lot of the players that we want might either be unavailable right now and become available later if their clubs sign other players (such as Suarez-Sanchez, Bale-Ozil) or be a case of waiting till clubs get desperate to sell near the end of the window and push their prices down. The moment we look desperate, we get mugged off. Man United are a good example: what… Read more »

GaGa LuLu

Wenger knows what he’s doing. No need to get ur panties in a bunch!

goonerbynature

He probably does, but no need to be sexist!

suker 4 punishment

wenger talks about signing players!! how dare he?

#wengerout

Arseblood

A stuffing at Everton and Le Merde will hit the fan….again. It always takes a crisis for Wenger to pull his finger out. We are two injuries away from another fourth place scrap.
What a crap idea to sell Podolski….it would take three seasons for Sanogoals and Campbell to score what he has.
Maybe he has his eye on a replacement…..yeah, right.

Who's kidnapped the real Cesc?

Wenger is hardly going to sit there and admit we’re desperate for signings in that area, prices will double for every player we go in for! Think about it!

sam

Isn’t it funny how our fans change their mood towards Winger so quickly I’m sure he has a plan so far our signings have been good and I’m sure whoever he gets in will be quality as well!

sam

Screw you autocorrect Wenger not winger haha

AS17 is for A.Sanchez not A.song

I trust in Wenger

Hutch

Come on guys, trust in the old fella.

We now only sign if they are ‘top top quality’, otherwise fuck it. Don’t want average people in our squad anymore. Those days are gone.

Arsene knows.

Wagner in

At the end of the day we’re not going to win the league with the squad we have. Great singings, good squad but the strength and depth just isn’t there. Our first 11 could give most anyone a run for their money but there’s no chance we can keep them fit all season. Don’t get me wrong we’ve strengthened well this summer and made obvious progress replacing deadwood with real quality options. But given the fact our rivals have also strengthened (Chelsea even more so than us, when they were already stronger than us last season), relatively speaking I think… Read more »

Petit's Handbag

We’re waiting until the final day
It’s annoying but stupid of anyone to think otherwise. It’s not really the club’s fault, the whole system is flawed.
How can a player like Loic Remy give 100% for QPR when he knows come September 1st he’ll be playing elsewhere. Very stupid, but so many things in football are

arsewizard

Wenger is been taking some NLP lessons I guess….always has something to say. ..

All Singing All Dancing Crap of Arsenal

No emergency ? Yeah Right. Bythe way heard Monaco would let Falcao go for 20m + . Any substance to that ?

das pauly bear

Door opens …. a tall dark warrior enters.

his name Abou Diaby !

come on Abou take this chance…

Third Plebeian

Some fans says this every year about Diaby, and, frankly, it’s starting to get into the “North London Power Shift” Tottenham thing we hear from them every summer. You can say it all you like, but it will never, ever be true. Another superfakt: Saying true things about Diaby on this site is the single greatest red thumb magnet in the universe! Give me the name of Diaby, and I will bet you every time that he won’t contribute to our season, and I’ll win that bet every, single time. Is it his fault? No. Does that mean we can’t… Read more »

darwin

I will be v puzzled if we don’t see one major signing as well as a defender. We have v significant funds and a huge reserves that can address the gaping holes in midfield and striker positions. Too many aging squad fillers. The fear I have is that we have done our business and it’s a re-run of Giroud and Podolski being bought early, only for RvP to run for the exit door. The possibility of Balotelli, with all his faults, joining the Mickey Mousers, whilst we watch our bank balance soar is a nagging worry.

Goon

Can’t read his poker face.

remember the invincibles

if we can get Sanchez to flourish as a CF, we’ll be fine.

ontheup

Fine, but then we need a winger. I’m all for versatility but not at the expense of depth. Chambers can’t be deputy RB, deputy CB and deputy DM.

jay

No not poldi say it ain’t so

voldermort

Happy to give Arsene the benefit until the window closes.we are short up front and now in defence and will battle for fourth if these positions are not addressed.
But a way to go yet before the window closes so I have a slight bit of faith that we may do the nesserary. But if we don’t then it’s another season wasted with money in the bank and that will tell you all you need to know about where this club is going and it’s ambitions.
We shall see what happens in the coming weeks.

dt

Increasingly it seems to be the case that the delay in signing anyone must be due to the fact that we haven’t yet guaranteed UCL football. Perhaps the signings of our prospective targets are conditional on this.

From the player’s POV, he might not want to sign if we don’t have UCL – especially if he’s a ‘top top quality’ player.

From the club’s POV, if we don’t get into the UCL (shudder!) perhaps the rationale is that we don’t need such a big squad(?), and Arsene does not want to add to the wage bill (?)

Thierry Walcott

From my ‘POV’ the Europa League has even more games, FYI!

mo974

Cher Arsene again and again please do upgrade the medical staff! We are always one injury from a stuffing! Don’t let poldi go, unless you have a better replacement which is very hard to find at this time of the window.The very good strikers available are rare and expensive: Cavani, Falcao, Reus? it’s impossible I don’t see us spending 40 or plus. So it means good news and pressure for Campbell, if Poldi go.It also means that the Boss has real faith in him contrary to what most people think.

Dylan

Shad Forsythe.

CB

Will be the signing of the summerif he keeps Ramsey and Theo fit for the season. With those two last season we would have won the league.

Policeman's bangers 'n' mash

FML.

eddymc2

I could swear only two minutes ago we’d signed Sanchez and were mostly optimistic. Going by some of the comments above, it (sadly) really doesn’t take much to turn our fanbase into the pitchfork-wielding mob from Frankenstein.

Rocky Road

No one likes a smart arse but… the pitchfork wielding mob is in Bride of Frankenstein. (Fucking incredible film!)

Rich

This CL qualifier worries me, we’ve pushed our luck a lot over the past decade.
It wouldn’t surprise me at all to see a few departures providing that there’s any takers.
Podolski, Campbell, Cazorla, Flamini, Monreal, Miyaichi.

sam

Eddymc2 well said mate

Still ronery

Boooo Balotelli going to the scousers. Hope that doesn’t make the difference between them and us for 4th

mulletman

I’m not as concerned with defensive as I am with attack. We spent well on Sanchez, but are still lacking a world class striker. I don’t care how good looking Giroud is, he ain’t world class. Score a shit load of goals and we’ll win the league.

Man Manny

This is my take on the events so far. 1. We need another striker as soon as possible. Arsene has not addressed that. No; Sanogo is not the answer. 2. Sanchez has made us stronger but not enough to solve our lack of goals that was our major drawback last season. 3. The signing of Chambers shows that Arsene’s vision has not waned– he is a massive addition to the team. But he should be moved to DM immediately since Arsene sees his future there. 4. We need another defender fast. We cant start from now to manage inadequacies. If… Read more »

Tony Hall

Food for thought … Fab out, Ospina in Bac out, Debuchy in Vermaelen out, Chambers in Bendtner Park Aneke Kallstrom Eisfield Viviano all gone (anyone else who was first team potential)? Poldi may be going … Campbell back from loan Sanchez only new player so far not replacing someone who is leaving. Do we imo need to strengthen further. Yes particularly in defence. Do I think AW will strengthen further? Love to be proved wrong but sadly no, usual excuses. Predictions … I think we are a good bet for a cup or two, third maybe second place but unless… Read more »

Dylan

Apart from Bac and Verm and to an extent Fab, none of those names on the list were regular first team players or even near the first team, settle down mate.

WindyCityArse

Agree somewhat but to compete, we need a competitive squad not just the first 11. That’s been the issue for years now… By not having quality backups, results in players being overplayed which leads to injuries and then they are rushed back which usually compounds the injury problems.

Dylan

“quality backup”, do you not see bendtner and park in that list

Still ronery

Giroud isn’t a PL winning level striker. From what I’ve seen of Sanogo I don’t think he would even get a game at Leicester. Sanchez is not a striker he play as a cf for Chile but that’s with 2 other strikers not 2 wingers/wide midfielder.

Predictions for this season is we lose to Vesiktas on away goals and fight for 4th with Everton.

Andre

To be fair, after Chambers’ signing Wenger mentioned he was only likely to be active again in the last two weeks of the transfer window and that CL qualification will determine how things go. Anything we do now will have little influence on the outcomes of our games until the interlull. I’ll assess again on Sept 1 at 23:00.

Black Hei

Silly Wenger. Should have just signed Sanchez on dateline day. What’s going to stop the mob now?

Thierry Walcott

I’m telling you!! SPOT ON! hahahaha #WengerOut

Simon

Obviously there are people on social media who scream when we don’t sign a world class player every week but the positions being mentioned that need strengthening have been the same for three seasons. Striker, although appreciate not many of these about, strong midfielder and centre back.

David

The Tiote rumour today had me hollowing! No thank you.

I think we will sign better players after we clinch the CL group stage!

warm

no emergency my ass.

Brendan

You realise by saying he isn’t in an emergency reduces the asking price of his targets by £5m each. Simple economics

santori

So we sold vela for about 2m and Vermaelen for 15m = 17m If we sell Podolski for 10 to 12m we will have made 29m roughly we bought Alexis at 33m, Debuchy (11m), Calum (11-16m) and Ospina at 3m which is an outlay of 58m Net spend thus far = 29m We may add a Cback (say Manolas) for 5m and maybe Rabiot for the future at another 4-5m + 9m taking total spend to 38m Will Wenger spend another 28-20m on say Falcao should Madrid fail to sell Di Maria and snap him up? He certainly won’t be… Read more »

Bob Truelove

We’ll do sweet dingus squatbird until after next wednesday

Vonnie

We haven’t qualified for Champions League yet and world champions don’t sign for teams that aren’t in the Champions League. I don’t think we’ll need to wait for deadline day, but until after next Wednesday.

North Bank Gooner

Fireworks should be good in Mugsmasherland this year 😉

Gooner Rob 81

I agree we need to strengthen defensively, I also am a firm believer we need a strong defensive midfielder, unfortunately making Arteta captain has hindered our chances of bringing anyone in world class in that position unless we are going to sit another captain on the bench… We miss you Verminator. With regards to the striker situation I have to say four goals against Benfica does not a good striker make, Sanogo does not fit the bill for me, Campbell however looks extremely talented although I do feel Wenger may significantly underplay him leading to his eventual departure in January… Read more »

Gooner Rob 81

Damn you auto correct Giroud not Group

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