Arsene Wenger has hinted he’ll be active in the transfer market during the month of January, but says that the contract situations with players like Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Ozil and Jack Wilshere will play a part in what happens.
All three are out of contract in the summer and can now, with less than 6 months remaining on their current deals, sign pre-contract agreements with clubs outside of England.
The Arsenal manager has reiterated his desire to keep all three players, so perhaps this month might provide some clarity in terms of their future intentions and what the club has to offer them.
Asked about his intentions, whether incoming or outgoing, Wenger said, “We are out there and look to do some things, yes.
“But when is difficult to say because that doesn’t depend only on us. We are open in any position for the exceptional player who can give us a plus.
“Therefore it depends a little bit on the injuries as well, and on the other hand I must say it will depend on who will manage to extend the contracts of the players who are at the end of their contracts in June.
“It will depend on that as well, because we’ll have to take the consequences of these decisions and respond to it.”
There doesn’t appear to be anything imminent happening though, with the manager sounding less than assured about any progress being made.
“In our job some days you think you make progress,” he said, “and the next you move back again so long as something is not signed you don’t like too much to talk about it.”
Thing is, seeing our league position halfway through the season and the clear fans disappointment, he can’t even say, “We have a brilliant crop of players and are full in all departments. Judge me at the end of the season”
How about judge me at the end of the century?
This is precisely the problem with Wenger & the club in general, our transfer policy is reactive, not positive. Our business depends on people leaving when it shouldn’t be, if we want players to leave then make deals happen, offer players, tell those that you don’t want to look for new clubs. As usual we don’t take he initiate & look to improve those we already have. As usual we wait & wait and then nothing happens. We need a young left back, young right back, centre half, defensive midfielder & an attacking midfielder, that’s even before we think if… Read more »
@Glocken That is it in a nut shell. And our reactive approach to the transfer window is all a subsequent effect of how the ‘business’ function of the club is given a higher priority at Arsenal, and what happens on the pitch is just seen as a side project. I genuinely get the impression from the club now that the football has almost become like an annoyance. That its a huge inconvenience to them. Because ultimately that’s the truth. Whichever way you cut it. Its not about the football anymore. Its all about the money. We were told for years… Read more »
Although, in my opinion, it is completely irrelevant to what will happen with Arsenal (because the sporting model, not just the business model, is so different), Kronke’s NFL team have had a tremendously successful season so far, the surprise of the league.
I’m just going to assume you aren’t the states and don’t understand this lawsuit is irrelevant. If the city of St Louis or state of Missouri is suing they are just wasting tax payers money with this lawsuit. SK will win in the end. I would say he ins’t a great owner but he isn’t evil owner as alot of fans think of him as. This is an investment and he’s hands off. I wish he was a fan like the owner of Chelsea. Not run it exactly like Chelsea but spend a little bit more especially during those stadium… Read more »
Glocken – “This is precisely the problem with Wenger & the club in general, our transfer policy is reactive, not positive.” is spot on.
At the beginning of his period here, Wenger was a great innovator and not afraid to lead. Now, we wait and ‘erm’ and ‘argh’ and see what other people do and then think about it some more.
Only when that changes, will we get back to the top.
Wenger had the edge in the early years because : 1) The rest of the league were allergic to all things foreign 2) He had monopoly on foreign (French) market for players The moment we had to show financial restrain bc of the stadium move was when CHelsea came in and change the complexion of the league. Add in the redistribution of TV income and lower teams also able to buy into the foreign market and Wenger’s advantage has been steadily eroded. No surprise we have suffered in terms of technical edge. We now struggle to break ‘smaller teams’ down… Read more »
we are profitable, that’s most important to the investor
winning or challenging the treasured trophies, that’s what we want as fans
there’s a clear disconnect
It doesn’t exactly scream ambition does it? The club are clearly struggling and have a short window in which to try to turn it around.
3 players that could definitely improve our squad: Ending contracts
– Leon Goretzka
– Stefan de Vrij
– Kepa Arrizabalaga
All three positions we need. And we should sell some deadwood too: Elneny, Walcott, Debuchy, Coq, Welbeck. It would be probably better to give some youngsters a chance like a few years back, they can only improve.
Sadly, I can’t see any of these players wanting to join us currently. Let’s face it, we are a level below the very tops clubs who will be competing for these guys. We need to let Sven do his thing and try and unearth the next Kagawa/Aubameyang/Lewendowski/Dembele.
Kinda prefer if we signed fabinho. He’d cost like 90 mill though.
Goretzka’s going to Bayern in the summer (as if we ever had a chance).
Yeah give the young players a chance and the club loses games and finishes in 10-15? Then what? accuse the club of not spending any money? Why would any top player want to come to Arsenal if all they get to play with is youngsters?
Not too bothered if Sanchez and/or Ozil leave to be honest. It’s not like we were winning the League every season since they joined. In fact, we got worse. Not saying it is their fault but it’s not like keeping them for longer will result in us winning the League any time soon, so I’m not quite sure what difference it makes considering the problems go deeper?
But I digress; I think Sanchez will join City and we’ll sign someone who is obviously worse but will look like a great signing for a week or two.
We didn’t get worse when they joined. We got better, just not as much better as we hoped. And other clubs got way, way, WAY richer.
It’s the first season Arsenal have conceded more than 50 goals. The first calendar year under Arsene Wenger were Arsenal have lost 11 games. We finished outside the top four and we’re on course to doing the same this year. How is this better?
We’re rich too, ya know? 🙂
I’m judging off all the years with Ozil and Alexis, not just the last 12-18 months. And yes we’re rich, but not the kind of rich that can pay 50 million for a full back, or 75 million for a CB, or whatever million for Stampy Pogba.
I think we were pretty stagnant prior to these 12-18 months to be honest. I mean, we finished 2nd behind Leicester only because we were better in a season that saw the majority of the top 6 completely fail (and thanks to a fuck up by Spurs)
And now let’s start denigrating Özil and Sanchez… Guys, they are 2, a squad is 23.
That’s my point. With them or without them, we still have no league title 🙂
Honestly whats the point then? Arsenal on paper will never look like league winners in this day in age. Big 3 spenders in this league will always be willing to buy the latest shiny new toys and make us look like a team that is lucky if we win?
The squad is 25 https://www.premierleague.com/news/465277
I think our beloved club is valuable but not rich. Not because our owners aren’t rich its just they don’t want to spend the money or finance debt. Isn’t that the problem? Either spend more and finance the debt or self sustainability. I prefer the latter but its painful as a fan to sit here and see the other clubs in our league just spend and spend.
They might keep us from relegation though!
My biggest worry about people leaving in this window or the next, is that we don’t seem to be willing to replace them adequately. If and when Sanchez and Ozil do leave, we need to replace them with similar, if not the same goalscorers/creative players. There’s the issue of Santi of course. Either we buy properly and pay the going rates, or we promote from within and keep confidence in young players. We seem to be doing neither. All this talk about Koscielny’s fitness problems and Per retiring, but we’re not giving Holding/Chambers a fair go, nor are we targeting… Read more »
Our problems go deeper than transfers can solve.
Yes, but our terrible transfer policy has made everything much worse for a long while.
If anything Wenger has flattered to deceive because he generally buys well to cover for his tactical flaws.
Whether he buys enough high end is the issue.
Ah only on the look out for ‘exceptional’ players again.
Just the 21 points off the lead competing against teams who’ve all had first team European football. The signings of Perez, Mustafi,Xhaka, Kolasinac and Lazazette have worked wonders haven’t they?
If Wenger is happy with his squad then he has to accept he’s a poor manager to be so far behind a title challenge
it wont matter if we bring in new players or not nothing will change, so we might aswell forget about this season, hope wenger goes at the end of the season and let the new manager do some business in the summer and see how it goes from there, don’t let results get you down, or worry if ozil is playing or not, you will feel a lot better
That’s exactly how i feel, just waiting for him to leave so new blood can flow through the system, then I can start caring again.
Sigh…
NO , we should not buy anyone , Arsenal should keep the budget so at the end of season , the new manager can reconstruct the squad.
Who says Wenger is leaving @ the end of the season? Last time I checked the tyrant signed a two year contract.
I’m in for post Wenger era be it a worse outcome at the earlier stages of the transition or otherwise.
As much as I love the man, only if he can be true to himself he’s lost it at the echelon.
Let Ozil and Alexis leave now. Give Jack a new contract. Up front we still have Iwobi/Lacazette/Welbeck/Giroud/Walcott What Arsenal are missing is someone with the drive/energy from midfield. Not just a “creative” player in terms of the final ball. We should spend whatever it takes to bring in someone of those qualities now, so that they’re bedded in for next season/ Wilshere could also be that energy/creative spark, just not 90 mins of every game. What am I talking about when I say energy? Parlour. Rosicky, Cazorla, all had it. Players who made things go up a gear when they… Read more »
I think Wenger should just buy in to reinforce first with Mahrez. This regardless of whether Ozil or Alexis leave (and more than likely an upgrade to Walcott who should be sold) Then IF should one of Ozil or Alexis show appetite to stay, we sell the other and bring in a Draxler show some proper intent. Instead, we seem o be waiting for things to happen which will be a massive mistake because the sort of players in the Draxler/Mahrez or even Pastore league who are contemplating moves at the moment are not easy to come by. Price, we… Read more »
I can’t wait till we get Mahrez or he goes somewhere else so I can stop reading about your Mahrez love affair lol
Now you’ve beaten Ferguson’s record, Arsene, do the decent and honourable thing by standing down in favour of a younger Manager such as Henry who is far more in touch with the type of players required to play modern Premier & Champions League football succrssfully.
Lenny Henry hasn’t got much pedigree as a football manager to be fair. I’d be interested to see what he could do for us though. Could be a good call. I think you may be on to something.
I think he was also suggesting that the contract situation at other clubs would effect their availability for us to consider buying them.
But I’m pretty sure our 25 registered players quota is full (even without Santi) so we’d have to sell a player or two before we can buy.
Yeah, fuck all’s happening then. Great.
We already know we are more than likely to lose either or BOTH of Ozil and Alexis. When they go is more dependent on offers. Thereby we should not be beholden to those things to happen before replacing. Replacement should be first and foremost dependent on availability. If the likes of Mahrez and Draxler and Pastore are available, we should grab them now before competition comes in. This sort of dillydallying waiting on Alexis and ozil to resolve does not seem to our benefit. We should grab at least one of these players regardless of contract situation with Ozil or… Read more »
Obviously this season we should have known their were problems from the beginning.
We have 4 fucking goalies on our 25 roster!!!! Why???
Even if AW didn’t or couldn’t spend anymore money on a fringe player we could have at least kept JC as the 25th player? Even Toral since we ended up not even spending the money we got for him?
Same old, same old. There was also surely the we will strengthen if we find exceptional quality..find exceptional quality? Identify it and try buy it. That’s how you build a squad.
We have a player who shows no fear, 16 years old. Why is he being kept back? Age or standing does not matter, performance does. Integrate him more into the 1st team or we will lose him i’ll bet. This team is not based on performance, this is why players can “stroll” through games sure of their place. Introduce performance(like most other managers) and we will soon see a change in the attitude of players, even the so called superstars of the team. The team is boring, sideways passing, going backwards, the training is causing Arsenal players, who come in… Read more »