Arsene Wenger has hinted that he’s open to spending big again this summer as the Gunners look to strengthen their squad ahead of the new Premier League season.
While remaining generally coy about his plans when talking to beIN Sport before the Sunderland game, the manager said his recent purchases have shown his willing to spend money when the right player is available.
“We are ready to spend the money for players who strengthen our team,” he said. “There is a difference in that and just spending money.
“We are in a position where we just want a player with an exceptional quality in any area that can strengthen us. The depth of squad is important and any world class player in any position can help us achieve what we want to achieve.”
And asked if his next big purchase might be a striker, he continued, “I don’t know. It’s not necessarily linked with the money.
“I’ve shown many doubters that I’m ready to spend money for players who have the quality but, first of all, you must have the money and then, secondly, the players who cost that kind of money are available.”
He also touched on the FA Cup final and his hopes of becoming the first manager since the way to win the famous trophy 6 times.
“It’s very important for me. You want your fans to be happy and I want personally to be happy as well and that would make me happy.
“It’s a final. It’s 50-50 but let’s prepare well and give absolutely everything on the day. We learnt last year how to deal with the pressure and hopefully we can show that this season.”
Arsenal spending since August 2013
Mesut Ozil – £42m
Alexis Sanchez – £32m
Calum Chambers – £16m
Mathieu Debuchy – £10m
David Ospina – £4m
Danny Welbeck – £16m
Gabriel – £11m
Kristian Bielik – £2.5m
Total spent: £117.5m
Quietly optimistic for this summer, it must be said. We’re in good shape and it sounds like more is to come.
I was slightly optimistic about our transfers a until a week ago, now I’m all out confident. Cech, Schneiderlin, J Martinez maybe Reus and we challenge properly for the league. Silly season has got me bad this Summer.
apart from walcott none of our players make intelligent runs with good timing.
Even alexis’s runs are not too great and thats something he ll have to work on. When you dont make those runs mesut ozil becomes ineffective and basically the ball is passed back to him and then recycled back and forth again without any meaningful penetration.
Exactly. Giroud never makes any intelligent runs and is too slow for counter attack. We need a world class striker who can convert all those chances mesut creates. A right footed striker.
I wouldn’t say he ‘never’ makes intelligent runs. But I agree we need a world class striker, we’re crying out for inspiration up top. We’ve been toothless for awhile now and Giroud was supposed to be that big striker to help break down teams, but he so easily gets choked out of games.
Sanchez got us 20+ goals and Giroud has gotten us 14+ goals. If Oezil could have given us 18+ we could have seriously challenged Chelsea. I think he should be shooting more when opportunities present themselves instead of always opting to pass. If he doesn’t, then Wenger should be brave enough to bench him.
lol a right footed striker…care to elaborate??
Bloody Hell, man, think! You know the striker with the right foot, he plays for the same team with that keeper, you know? The one with the hands.
Come on, Giroud’s got 14 goals in 26 games in the premier league this season. It’s not his fault he’s the only serious option up front we have(Welbeck has only 4 goals in 27 PL games this season)and that Wenger’s forced to play him in EVERY game. It happened last year, and again this season where you could tell Giroud is exhausted having to play 90minutes of almost every game when he’s fit. We definitely though need another goal scorer imo, I don’t even think he needs to be a striker necessarily, especially since Wenger probably sticks with Welbeck as… Read more »
Wenger recently said Ox will stay on the wings.
I don’t get why people still think Ox will be a CM. We can’t even play the CMs we currently have in their natural positions FFS, that’s how many we have.
Chamberlain’s skills and style of play suggest long-term his future is in the center (at least, according to both him and Wenger). But right now, precisely because of the logjam at CM you point out, he will be playing out wide.
You mean a right right footed striker or it can also be a left foot striker who can strike the right way but also left when needed.
I think people are forgeting that Sanogo is back next season. He’s right footed I guess. Sometimes it’s hard to tell.
Oh God, back to giving Sanogo opportunities in the first XI, definitely should go on loan to a Championship team so he can remember how to score…..or shoot, that would be a good start
Or not be injured.
I’ve no idea whether his limited number of appearances for Palace (10, almost all as a sub, just one goal in the cup and none in the league) is due to injuries or simply that they decided he wasn’t much use. Either way, it hasn’t been a great season. He wasn’t even on the bench last weekend. Maybe they’ve sent him back already to be tended by Shad.
Tbag,I agree Giroud is slow and doesn’t have the speed to make those intelligent runs however he makes that up with his intelligent passes and uses his body to create space. I believe the Ramsey goal in the FA Cup final is a good example.
I think we should sign Cavani, Kondogbia/Schneiderlin, and Cech. Or stick the Scz and buy Pedro instead.
Cech isn’t the keeper he once was. There’s a reason Chelsea replaced him. I can see the point of demoralising (and possibly losing) Ospina, Szczesny and Martinez if we were replacing them with someone young and world-class, but Cech is now neither. He was already past his best when Chelsea dropped him and, not having played regularly for some time, he may have deteriorated a little bit more. Presumably he’d want big wages and to be our first choice, otherwise he’d be happy sitting on Chelsea’s bench. A disruptive signing and not a good use of money. in my view.… Read more »
i seriously won’t put “intelligence” with walcott. 1 trick pony. Small time defender from Man U had Walcott in his pocket the whole match and we know he was trying to cross and got lucky.
Walcotts only great goal was the one against Chelsea in the carling cup final.
If that is the only great Walcott goal you can think of…
my favorite (though not the best) was when he fell over and distracted Chelsea’s defense only to hop up again, run clean through, and score.
“None of our players”? Did you start supporting Arsenal this season. Or have you only watched matches that Aaron Ramsey hasn’t played in? The Welsh Jesus specializes in intelligent runs, especially when playing in the middle, as we saw last season.
wilshere does this all the time, too!
which is why it’d be great to have a world class, mobile, quick striker. I’m hoping Wenger goes for Barca lite again – I mean a lesser quality version of their front 3 – rather than another big guy. The Big Guy with scoring midfielders model doesn’t work that well when your midfielders don’t score much. And we can’t count on Theo’s fitness either.
Love that picture
Interesting list of buys… Even more importantly we’ve lost the perennial selling club tag…
I read Barcelona had 50M quid for Ramsey, even though the transfer embargo and all that
seriously, it’s true
Im not shocked, AW and IG have said in long time that they aim high now, and two last summers are only the beginning.
To be fair, considering we have never really spent a lot we have generally mixed it at the top fairly well. The signings are making a difference, so wenger is right, it’s not necessarily about the money more about the quality. That said, you don’t get anyone at the right price these days.
Keep the core, add 1 or 2 great players and we’re there.
Cech, Vidal, Reus, Benzema. Badda-bing!
I do though think we could use 1-2 signings to really make a push for the title next season. Wenger should just buy one or two as he says ” Top Qualify” signings and that it. Reus/Draxler/or N.Fekir(Lyon) And one of Schneiderlin/Witsel/Kondogbia/Carvalho * I don’t see any strikers coming to Arsenal this summer but Wenger maybe he would consider signing Luciano Vietto of Villareal. *GK for me only if Wenger doesn’t plan on sticking with Sczez as our #1 Keeper. Personally I don’t think Ospina’s good enough to be a starter at Arsenal so unless we can seriously get Cech(Doubtfull>Chelsea),… Read more »
Really hope we sign reus. He is my favourite player outside our club.
yes boss!
Lacazette
Reus
Schneiderlin
I believe Reus & Schneiderlin should be the priorities. Lots of experience and proven on the highest stage.
I just don’t watch the French league to know enough about Lacazette & Fekir but they both seem to be highly rated. Wenger knows the French League pretty well, so I’m not too worried if he goes after either or both of them.
Also, if we could add Cech (highly doubt Jose would let that happen) I feel like we would have the most complete team since the early 2000s.
Jose has no say where Cech goes this year and Wenger said he will strengthen in any position so i think it will be a GK. Lacazette or martinza from Porto either one or maybe both i would be happy both great goal scores. Schneiderlin would be a great buy and maybe get Khedira and the 50 million for Ramsey would be great business.
Top top top quality.
Triffic, oh my word
That list of signings is impressive, not least because not a single one seems regrettable. COYG
Not world class but Javier Hernandez wouldn’t be a bad signing
Benteke ?
We need it. We have a decent squad but this season has shown its not good enough to properly challenge.
I have a feeling something big is gonna happen
I feel that Arsene has truly got his mojo back in the market. I’m quietly optimistic that we are going huge on a surprise or two. I’m not getting myself sucked into any rumors this time around, I’m just gonna sit back and enjoy the show.
When Wenger’s paying 4Mil for two French U17 youngsters without a second thought, you know he’s got his mojo back.
In. Cech, Schneiderlin, Pedro, Benzema.
Sterling is great but we need goals and, look at Juve, strong experienced players, not stars-to-be. Pedro is intelligent, fast, scores goals and and not very expensive. Leaves room for other big signings.
Make this the summer count Arsene!
If money were no issue, I would target Howedes and Schneiderlin. Also a forward like a Higuain. I don’t think we need Cech personally, especially if Chelsea want a lot for him.
I’d like benzema, kondogbia and Cech. Can’t see benzema happening though
benzema, lacazette, reus. any of those and I’m happy. maybe throw vidal in.
I wonder what happened to Wenger’s original plan to convert Sanchez to a CF?
When he was signed, he made it clear he saw him as “becoming a striker” and all those qualities are still there. So what happened?
And please, no one say anything about “we need someone to hold up the ball”, unless you’re one of those people that thought Wenger wanted to sign Suarez to play on the wings (Suarez and Sanchez are very very similar type of players).
we need someone to hold up the ball
not sure i rate benzema, can’t see why he’d score 10 more goals a season than giroud
thought theo looked sharp last night which was encouraging but TR7 really looked the part when he came on. if he ends up playing elsewhere that would represent a big loss i think. santi’s reinvention in the middle is really interesting as well, arteta must be a bit fucked off with that i’d have thought.
Have you seen benzema play? He is the perfect arsenal striker. Great team player like giroud and brings other players into the game. But the main difference is that he has pace, much more skilled than giroud. Great on the counter attack and a better finisher. Giroud is a very good player but there is a reason he will never near the Madrid squad
Pogba & Mueller. Game over.
hasn’t müller just signed the contract extension?
Pogba coming to Arsenal would probably be “world over,” not just “game over.” If he’s available Real will buy him. I can’t see him coming to England, and certainly not to us, especially with FFP being abandoned. There’s just now way we’re going to pony up 60 million quid + wages of 250k a week, and you know that Real/Man shity and chelski would.
It’s interesting looking at the figures spent on players in the article. £16m for Chambers really sticks out.
I’m not having a go at the kid not that we’ve spent it, just pointing out that that’s a very large amount of money for an unproven player.
It was a bargain! Compare it to what Liverpool paid for Lovren or United for Shaw.
Chambers is English. English players are worth approximately 2x what a foreign player would be worth because of the quotas and general sentimental feelings.
World Class? Bendtner coming back
World class egotist.
I think AW is looking for world class experience to add more mental solidity rather than skill…that is why probably he mentioned (in any position)
Striker and defensive midfielder please Dad?
That will cover my birthday and Christmas presents ok?
alright paul! You are really going to call him dad goign forward?
I read in another thread here that a person whats to call him ‘dad’ i guess it was you!
Yes it was me!
In Dad I trust.
….and if the signings come in, you will be thanking me!
🙂
Don’t forget Sanogo is back next season after a successful loan spell at crystal palace playing alongside Chamack.
Am I the only one who noticed it adds up to 133.5 mil and not 117.5
Doesn’t matter either way
Keep up the good work Mr. Blogs 😉
Why not get Van Persie back? He’d do a great job…and not threaten Welbeck or Giroud. I think it would be great…
Great if we bring him back as the guy who picks bird poo off the Emirate grass. Maybe.
What are you smoking and where can I get some?
I’m sure Wenger has targets in mind but, as we did with Ozil & Sanchez, don’t expect Dick & Arsene to make the first move. We’ll wait for the Real’s, Bayern’s and Barca’s of the world make a move and we’ll be waiting with cash in hand to pick from their surplus of quality talent. I also can’t shake the thought that Wenger won’t look outside of London, if he wants to increase the quality at keeper … and it won’t be Cech. I plan to sit back, enjoy the Copa America competition and patiently wait to see who Wenger… Read more »
When you add Coquelin and Bellerin to the list it reinforces just how far our squad has come since August 2013.
Imagine how much we’d be OK with paying for them and our situation becomes more impressive still.
With money now available and no pressure to sell, we’re gradually getting a squad we can all be happy with.
Oh, and don’t underestimate just how instrumental Arsene Wenger is in persuading those ‘top, top’ players coming to us. Not only can he tell a Balotelli from an Alexis, but he’s pretty good at getting them to sign for us.
Barcelona transfer ban is going to make things harder for us I think. Sure they won’t buy anyone, but they probably won’t sell anyone either. Since they’re out of the game, a rich English club will probably take their slot to sign the best players in Europe, and we all know who the super rich English clubs are…
£117.5M spent already. Strewth.
I don’t think we will be signing anybody to get overly excited about. Not Alexis/Ozil excited.
The teams around us will.
But we’ll still be the most likeable group of players in the league/world
Vidal, Scheneiderlin, Higuain n Cezch..release: Diaby, Arteta, Flamini n Szecshny..we can only dreams I suppose
Reus/Draxler, Schneiderlin/Kondoghbia and maybe if we can benzema/cavani. Reus/Draxler should be a priority even if Walcott stays, he lives injured and we could use some width when he is gone (alongside gnabry and ox who seems to be injured quite often), Schneiderlin for cover/compete/play alongside coq, and benzema/cavani to compete with Giroud
That picture is amazing!!
I’m reading all these comments and it’s obvious that’s you guys are not paying attention to what Arsene said. What should excite everyone is that he wants to bring in world class players at any position. That’s great news because everyone on this team needs to be on their toes. That means he is not tied to any player at the heap. If he finds a world class striker that will improve us, he’ll get him. If it’s a world class goalie, then he’ll buy him. If it’s a world class #10, he’ll buy him even though we have Ozil.… Read more »
Except there was a world class number 10 available last season despite having Özil. He came to London and won the league in his first season. So, no, Wenger does not guy world class players when they are available or even if it gives his current players proper competition. If we can play Cazorla and Özilin the same team, so why not Fab and Özil?
On the surface your argument makes sense. But ask yourself this, do you know what happened behind the scene while he was looking to leave arsenal? Do you know if he burned his bridges? Do you know if Arsenal didn’t want Darren Dein around the team anymore because of the instability he cause this team? Do you know if some of the stability we now have is because Dein doesn’t have anymore clients at arsenal and the team want to prevent any opening of him coming back and having access to other arsenal players? There is more to this than… Read more »
Possibly, but what you are saying is speculation. What I am saying is we had first option on Fabregas and we let him go to Chelsea. That’s a fact. Based on the performances and statistics this season, Fabregas is better than Özil. We have to admit footballistically speaking, Wenger dropped yet another clanger. I don’t know why Arsenal fans cannot see that Arsene does not do or doesn’t know what to do to win the title, be it do what Mourinho has done, buy the players he needs and set his team up to win the title within two seasons… Read more »
I know it won’t happen as he’s at spurs and Levy won’t sanction it, but Lloris would be my first choice. We should’ve got him anyhow when he was available for about £10m I think. Great keeper and a leader at the back too. Barring injury he’ll be at the top for at least 10 more years. Apparently his first choice was Arsenal but Wenger passed up. I can see LVG coming in for him for Utd though as de Gea is off.
Arsene has not been shy of spending. The media like to throw out red herrings but he has spent close to 80m over last two summers on just Ozil and Alexis alone. He has also had to reinforce in other key areas and has had to spread out the money to rebuild the squad since he realised the Denilson generation was not going to cut it and he brought in Arteta and company. In that his rebuilding was complicated by key departures for several seasons on. We are at the end of this tumultuous period. For the first time, Wenger… Read more »
Gibberish
Thumbs down for letting Rosicky leave
Cech is a must! look at all the points de gea has earned man utd, keeping them in the game on multiple occasions. Cech will do the same for us. Not to mention his experience in Europe might help us in preventing to shoot ourselves in the foot next time.
Not to mention mentoring szszszs
GK – Cech
CB – Howedes
DM – Kondogbia
AM – Fekir
CF – Lacazette