Arsene Wenger says those players who have spent the summer playing international football will be given all the rest they need to ensure they recharged for the season ahead.
The Gunners had nine players at EURO 2016, three players at the Copa America Centenario and are due to send two players, Serge Gnabry and Takuma Asano, to the upcoming Rio Olympics.
Recognising the importance of having a breather, the boss touched on how much time he’ll be giving his first team squad following a busy summer.
“You consider the rest time because France had a long, long go and I believe that they need four weeks’ holiday because they need to recover from that,” he told Arsenal.com.
“It takes you two or three weeks to regenerate… to recover completely, and they need to come back with hunger. That disappointment to lose a final, it takes some time to recover from that.
“I believe the club benefits from [our players’] experiences at the top level, and the mental experiences as well that they have gone through with such a huge pressure. Of course in the longer term you benefit from that.
“Apart from England – who of course came out a bit early – some players had a very positive experience, like Aaron Ramsey with Wales, Alexis with Chile – they won again the Copa America so that’s of course a fantastic achievement because they were away from home this time.
“The French players, Giroud and Koscielny, had a good tournament [even if] they didn’t finish as well as they hoped.
“I think Ozil had a good tournament as well. I met him after the game with France, he was of course very disappointed but most of them had good performances.”
It’s not the first time Wenger has touched on this subject. Two years ago he acknowledged that the German contingent would need downtime after winning the World Cup in Brazil.
Unfortunately, a lack of transfer activity, coupled with a mini injury crisis, forced him to field the likes of Ozil and Mertesacker earlier than wanted. Inevitably, we paid the price. Ozil suffered a knee injury that ruled him out for five months and Mertesacker lost form as he struggled to motivate himself. It would be nice not to make the same mistake again.
Please talk less Arsene and focus on signing our new striker.
Keep bidding on Griezmen until Madrid accept. So it costs £70 mill, who cares. We have a young world class forward who can play in multiple positions and tracks back if needed. He wants £200k a week, done. Just get it done, we are the richest cash club in the world, what’s the point of t sitting in the bank. Keep bidding, eventually he will say yes. All players have a price. Wenged asked about Martial and was told he was not for sale so he went away. United went in, they said the same, they said, well how about… Read more »
If you can’t do more than one thing at a time then that’s fine, but don’t assume the rest of us are as handicap as you.
There’s only one Arsene Wenger!!
Signing some new players might help?
Not going to happen. Wenger is taking a four week rest after his busy media schedule this summer, while Dick Law is lost in Napoli and Sir Chips has fallen and he can’t get up.
The Chips are down, as you might say.
He’s lying on my coat.
Nah, that’s a ludicrous idea… we have Sanogo and Walcott.. they’re top drawer.
The Guardian and some of the other more reputable football news sites saying Mahrez wants to leave Leicester this summer. Would be a great addition to our front line. No summer tournament so would be available come August 14th. Yes he’s not a CF, but he has the guile to unlock packed defences.
It’s too early to condemn Wenger for a supposed lack of transfer activity. Well the kind most of us want. Xhaka was a replacement, attrition if you like for outgoing/retirees. Wilshire is LANS obvs. We’re well stocked in midfield now. The front line is worrying me though and this is where I take umbridge with Wenger. Sadly in spite of what he tells us, Giroud is not prolific enough to be our main striker. He is good, but with the money available at the club and the pulling power we have, we simply must acquire a top level striker no… Read more »
Giroud is good enough to be our main striker, but he’s not good enough to be our only striker. When Giroud is good, he is very good. His problem is he goes through those patches where he isn’t very good, and he doesn’t seem to be one of those players who likes to “play through” those patches. Instead, he does better when taken out of the firing line for a bit and brought back in fresh and ready to go. I am not convinced we need a better striker than Giroud – getting one of those is really hard, as… Read more »
My problem with Giroud is that he is not at the same level as Ozil and Sanchez. Yes he is an aerial threat, but he cannot run beyond defenders or anticipate through balls. Look at the body language of Ozil and Sanchez last season. They seemed fed up of creating or trying to create for him, but for large swathes of matches he looked out of sorts. No, we’ve tried him for years, but if we are serious about winning the big competition’s we have to buy off the best teams in the world. Otherwise lower our expectations.
Not sure about our ‘pulling power’ you mention.
We should be. Great stadium, great city, great league, loaded with cash but when you’re turned down by assholes like Vardy ( a lucky escape IMHO), something isn’t right. All points to the manager.
Groundhog transfer window will lead to groundhog season.
I don’t think Vardy was ever interested in leaving Leicester and just used Arsenal to get a better deal at LCFC. It doesn’t say anything anything about our ‘pulling power.’
That may be so, but Arsenal put itself in that position. While I’m happy he decided to stay put, I do find it worrying that we get publicly turned down so often.
Also, why do we find it so hard to sign new players? is it down to not wanting to pay too much on transfers? Not wanting to break the club’s wage structure? Arsene being too picky? or just a simple case of not being very good negotiators?
“Apart from England – who of course came out a bit early”
Haha.
As polite as always…
Like you do with Sanchez?
Time to unleash the Jeff!
I can only assume that Wenger’s waiting for ‘movement’ in the market. Waiting for some kinda domino effect that landed us Ozil…
Whether we have a plan in case that doesn’t happen is doubtful given past experience.
Surely given the shitloads of cash we have as one of the world’s wealthiest clubs, we should be causing the ‘movement’ now and then, not picking up on the scraps from bigger transfers.
More breaking news – if you stand in the rain without protective clothing you will get wet
We need a world class striker that’s is better than Giroud if we really want to seriously challenge for title and in CL. Please let’s spend that cash on the likes of Higuain or Aubanayang. As I’ve said before we should also be offering serious cash for Mahrez. He was the one truly exceptional player in that Keicester squad.
Imagine how good we’d be with Ozil and Santi feeding passes to Alexis and Mahrez with the likes of Higuain to finish them. I realize that would take 100M+ investment but that’s what will be needed ricin pete at highest level.
Not sure I’m keen on ricin pete. He’d be a bit toxic in the dressing room.
Rambling Pete has taken a dark turn.
I miss him 🙁
Not just me that’s having problems with the autocorrect I see … for some reason recently it just started making up random shit and inserting it into what I type …
There are no world class strikers that will come to Arsenal lol
Let’s be honest do you think Lewa, or Higuain would come?
If we start spending serious money they might … we’ve got everything else going for us
Question is….how many of those passes will Higuain need to actually score?
Sure they must rest but there is nothing stopping us recalling them early from their break. This whole (manufactured) crisis up top at start of season simply doesn’t hold any water unless your the facile press. The question is not Giroud or. We will need Giroud. He is our most consistent goal scorer and beyond that he also provides as a node for the team. 3 goals and two assists in the Euros. 24 goals last season which is better than what Walcott provided in his best season at 21 goals. We need Giroud AND another striker simply because Welbeck… Read more »
Using Arse.com official website, the squad for the first 2 matches looks like….and I’ve had stab at the team that’ll face ‘pool and Leicester for our easy start to the league… GOALKEEPERS 1 Wojciech Szczesny-Roma or shouting at his dad on the continent 13 David Ospina-On his holidays 26 Emiliano Martinez-*tumbleweed*BENCH 33 Petr Cech-presume still looking for his near post PLAY v Pool/ Leicester (Unofficial some 10yo with potential) DEFENDERS 2 Mathieu Debuchy-Toys out of pram last seen muttering something about Makems 3 Kieran Gibbs-BENCH v pool/ Leicester 4 Per Mertesacker-PLAY v Pool/ Leicester 5 Gabriel-PLAY v Pool/ Leicester 6… Read more »
Of course it´s enough for us the field 10 players against L´pool and Leicester in your opinion. When being sarcastic it´s always better to recheck your posts for obvious errors.
I liked it me.
Meh, who was being sarcastic. I was unsure between Ox and Santi given both on the return. Like everyone else I hope we can land a solid striker to keep Giroud warm on those lonely nights away to Stoke. Should I have had Higuain, Draxler and Lord Lucan at CB for the starting 11 or is my started for 10 (see what I did there) fairly realistic at the present time?
Thanks goodness we got top 3 and don’t have to play in the CL playoff round. We will definitely need to rely on those that haven’t played this Summer at the beginning of the season and luckily Switzerland didn’t advance too far so Xhaka can come in soon plus Ramsey missed that last Wales match so gives him a bit more time to recuperate.
Don’t want to be accused of being spoilt, not living in the real world or having unrealistic expectations. But… if we do wait till the end of the window for best value / domino-effect-that-got-us-Özil type stuff it means three or four games with feo as our only striker. I wouldn’t trust him to sit the right way on a toilet, never mind lead the line and take chances (the number of which will surely be affected by the absence of Mesut and Rambo) against Pool and Leicester. I’d hoped he’d be at WHam by now having been upgraded. Instead we’re… Read more »
wilshere and campbell were in training today
It’s still a puzzle the Vardy snub. Now Kante looks likely to go and Mahrez must be planning on going to a bigger club. He must have very low aspirations to turn Arsenal down or just bloody stupid. But the fact that we did try and sign him is an indication that a forward is on the shopping list and we also have been linked with a couple of defenders so hopefully by the end of the transfer window we have at least 2-3 additions. The trouble is we might have to wait until the final day as usual and… Read more »
His answer came out after that England game when they were playing against a packed defense and he was totally ineffective … suspect that might have had something to do with it. He did actually say that to be fair, and that he didn’t want to be played out of position, To be fair to him he’s onto a good thing at leicester and he got there the hard way so maybe he just didn’t want to take the risk. He did also use the situation to get a big juicy new contract of course, so perhaps that was what… Read more »
Relax guys – Yaya Sanogo is back …still remember how he frightened Bayern Munich at Emirates ! 🙂
I see your Sanogo and raise you one TGSTEL. Yes ladies, gentlemen and taxis, he’s available!
Deadline day. Till then, keep gnashing your teeth and hope we get draws in the matches before and soon after deadline day.
It is simple. The market value of players is above the price Wenger is willing to pay. I’m not saying go in for a player with a 100M offer, but he’s not willing to spend the extra 5-10M that player values have appreciated since he started. It’s just not good enough.
For the starting game next season:
Cech.
Four Arsenal defenders.
Four Arsenal midfielders.
Ozil.
My Gran.
Thoughts?…:-)
Blx forgot Ozil is resting – replace with Awobi…
My-Gran, Please sign a striker.
I am getting a headache.
Giroud should be what Dzeko was in city for us. A great option you can call on from the bench. But he’s definitely not good enough to be first choice. Too inconsistent. We need goals. We need a striker or its 4th place for us. Get icardi/lacazette and a wide forward since we can’t get a Higuain or PEA.
get Milik
Got Milik?
Milk?
Perisic.
I actually also really like that young Croatian winger who started the Spain match and came on against Portugal, I think he’d be good too though maybe more for the future
When will the Giroud haters just stop?! He is the number one striker for France who are one of the best sides in Europe! Yes he’s a bit quirky and can drive you crazy sometimes but just look at what he adds to our game! His touch and ability is top quality, he’s a modern day Alan smith +some! I love the guy. …that being said, we definitely do need another striker. I actually think we need two. The problem is that getting them will be very hard, especially this season seeing as the tv money is available and clubs… Read more »
Sterling (£) is through the floor…we’re buying no-one of note as prices have rocketed.
Toxic stadium by September with boos, catcalls and Wenger Out placards.
Oh god an already difficult first month starts looking very dodgy and we need a good start cause the curse of November looms not far behind
Having said that we will do the double and such ( blind faith is so wonderful )
The guy is only good for talking.
You just know these players will be brought back early after a couple of defeats.
Can’t wait for his contract to end already.
So, Kante is signing for the chavs. Now before you thumb me down, I know we don’t need him, we’ve got half a million midfielders but with his colleague and king chav vardy turning us down, do you honestly think Kante would have jumped at the chance to join us as quickly as he’s gone to Chelski?
On the plus side Mahrez maybe on his way to the Emirates….?
I’m withholding judgment until the end of the window, that’s only fair. However, Blogs has repeatedly stated that if we blow it again he will be supplying the pitchforks and torches. If Arsenal doesn’t do the business they desperately need to do I’ll be first in line. I’m not usually this negative but as I watch other teams methodically get it done I have a feeling of dread over our prospects in the coming campaign.
PS – Paying 105M for Pogba and paying him 202K per week isn’t what I’m talking about. That’s nuts.