Arsenal will not be signing Wilfried Zaha according to Arsene Wenger, however, the boss has hinted – in that inimitable way of his – that he might try and lure a couple of new faces to the Emirates before the end of January.
Spinning more than a hot-panted Kylie Minogue the boss changed tact for the umpteenth time this month when again quizzed on possible transfers by the press.
Asked initially about his interest in Zaha, a player he confirmed the club had been keeping an eye on but who now looks set to move to Manchester United, Wenger stated:
“If Zaha goes to Man Utd, good luck to him. We were never in for him. Never.”
A firm line drawn under that one and not massively surprising given the success in persuading Theo Walcott to sign a new deal and the interest from rival clubs.
Pressed for further news on signings, the boss admitted that he and his team were still actively scouring the market but wouldn’t be drawn on individuals.
“I will not give you any names. We are working very hard.”
Arseblog News hasn’t the foggiest whether Arsenal are going to sign anyone by the end of next week or not. One thing is for sure, Arsene’s attitude in his weekly press briefings has become increasingly erratic.
Sometimes the boss appears to enjoy feeding the tabloids a morsel or two to feast on (he could have outright dismissed Cavani story last week), then the following week he’s bristling with annoyance that his riddled answers have been spun into ridiculous headlines.
Unfortunately, whichever mood he’s in he seems unaware – or perhaps he doesn’t care – that what he says gets reported to the supporters who increasingly seem flummoxed by his wishy-washy status updates.
We’d suggest reading between the lines again but things seem very smudged at the moment.
This is pain-staking, lets just hope the West Ham game gives us something to smile about! COYG
I’m just getting a little cheesed off with Wenger treating fans like the media. As if we arnt important enough to know were our teams heading. At this rate we won’t qualify for the Champions League. And to embarrassment we will have to hear how Spurs took our place.Wenger listen to George Graham, come down from your high horse.
We are saving our money. The ruling ones at Arsenal seems to have given up on CL next season, so we wont be spending anything incase it really does happen. If we get there it will be all “we are good enough”, “mental toughness”, “sell our captain”… If we dont get there it will mean higher ticket prices, sell more players and sign no one.
are you suggesting he tell the media 1 thing and us another in future? the media are pretty slow but not that slow, they will end up trawling thi site and any other that arsen leaks to and we will end up with journalists here to learn, then to take your rantings when we lose and publish those, then all of a sudden theres a media multitued of wenger haters and theres more pressure on him more things to worry about instead of transfers. Sadly it is unworkable
Wasn’t sugesting for a minute that Wenger would be able to say one thing to the fans and another to the press. I was just raising the point that he should stop feeding the media by drip feedng them with what turns out to be nothing of any consequence. He is the only guy who can get our team up there winning cups. So why isnt he doing it.He spent a lot of time on securing Walcot and pays him what he wants. But didnt do the same with Nasri, Cliche and Van Persie. I know who I would have… Read more »
Wenger is playing a dangerous game.
Denying we were in for Zaha? He’ll be signed by this afternoon.
Just wishful thinking me thinks!!!
Didn’t read all of it, got distracted in the second paragraph.
I think he enjoys toying with supporters..
He is toying with stupid journalists that are looking for ridiculously untrue stories to write, not with the supporters. It is unbelievable to see how you and many others don’t get that.
I’m afraid we’ve been saying that for the past couple of years and Arsene has gone on to NOT sign the “we were never in for player x”.
Frankly it’s not funny anymore and It’s getting exhausting.
Where will we get any kinda real info then, if not from the manager?
Its probably fun to fuck with the journalists though…
@per..
OK.. so I am the manager of one of the biggest clubs in the world which hasn’t won a trophy in 8 season and i know the supporters are dissatisfied. so what do i do, i “toy with the journalists” as you have said without realizing that every single word i say is going to be dissected for even a smidgen of hope that Arsenal are going to sign a player.
Blogs, you should do a bit on Wenger as a 14 year old girl regarding Facebook status updates.
I’ve tried to make sense of this a number of times today.
I’ve now given up.
Shit I hope he doesn’t sign a new centre back, I’m so close to first team action!
Wenger is an absolute Troll King.
Oh I still love him by the way.
What “erratic” is for Arseblog means “enigmatic” for Wenger. He is of course aware that once we give out names, the sugar daddies will be there to outbid us. At least that’s his firm opinion. I understand that and given no one has a clue what’s going on is partly (italics) a good thing. The problem here it that lately the club hasn’t really made the best transfer choices which makes everyone (me included) nervous of course in this state of complete unaccountability. My personal opinion on transfers: cf 100% agree with Arseblog’s article yesteday and no I am not… Read more »
Manages never like dropping names because of the sugar daddies. unfortunately agents cant wait to inform them.
Wenger: “we were never in for Zaha”
Ah, is that supposed to cheer me up?
We don’t need to listen to Arsene anymore let’s
just sit back and watch him take us for a ride,
it’s hopeless.
One moment I’m desparate for us to take a gamble and sign someone… Stick out a limb with all this ‘super talent’ gumpf…. Then I think Chamakh, Arshavin, and even some of the more recent signings who haven’t exactly turned the tide, and i think maybe it is worth holding out for exactly what we need, remembering any money spent now comes straight off what we have in the summer. Tricksy!
Utter bullshit.
“Santi Cazorla, I dont know him”
This is complete shite!
He weakens an already thin squad by loaning out Chamakh and Djourou at the beginning of the window, so you would think there’s a plan and some replacements were lined up but no, ‘we’re working very hard’.
We needed reinforcements before the window, so if no one new comes in , let alone ‘world class’ we’ve been desperate for, then this borders on neglect and bad management in my opinion and we better be ready to reap what we sow.
I don’t think this squad is weakened with Chamakh leaving, I’d genuinely rather have Akpom starting up front before him. Not being weakened is a poor consolation when it wasn’t strong enough to start with though…
I don’t know why anyone ever takes anything, anybody vaguely related with football says at face value, or at all seriously. If a manager told me the world was round, I wouldn’t believe them.
So you think loaning out a recognised international striker (whether he’s any good or not is up to debate but Chamakh’s first 6 months here proves he could do a decent job in the prem) and leaving us with one recognised striker new to the premiership, one wannabe ‘striker’ prone to going missing and promoting Chuba (who Wenger will probably try out a t right back )doesn’t makes us weaker?
Regardless of what Chamakh did in his first 6 months, he simply wasn’t giving the team ANYTHING in the last 18 months (except the opportunity to lose to Bradford ofc). I think he’ll do well at West Ham if he recovers some confidence but when he’s less than useless for us then his presence here or not simply doesn’t matter.
+1. I’m also nonplussed that we haven’t been playing the ‘kids’, since they’ve given us so many happy memories before – not least in terms of workrate and enthusiasm – and when the alternative is the likes of Chamakh or Arshavin. How on earth could Akpom or Aneke be worse? What I wouldn’t give to see Arsene able to throw Ryo on with 20 minutes to go and scare the bejeesus out of the knackered right back…
I think we are getting carried away with this youth stuff. In all fairness, last time we had to rely on ahoye mentioned “workrate and enthusiasm” we were dicked by united. 2-8 line-up consisted of (less experienced then) Jenks, Ramsey, Coq or Traore.
Pentalty shoot-out versus Bradford Cty: watch it again on the Arsenal Player… Chamakh walks up to the spot not giving a fuck whether or not his goes in. Rewind to about 10 minutes into the second-half when Chamkh was coming on as a subsititue… he really couldn’t be BOTHERED to strip down on that cold night and come on the pitch. Problem with Chamkah is he was overpaid at GBP60k-a-week so he lost his ‘hunger’. Had we signed him for half of that maybe he would’ve given the effort. Same theme applies to our other numerous ‘deadwood’ signings. Had we… Read more »
That’s probably because the earth is not round. But I get your point
Let him go and things will be clearer…
I don’t care if we were never in for Zaha. We already signed a potential star in Oxlade-Chamberlain last season. Besides, Zaha isn’t really what we need “right now”, even though he might be a bright prospect for the future. We have enough exciting youngsters coming through the ranks.
What I care about, and worries me, is the fact that who is going to get our “Goals For” column up and running and who will bring the “Goals Against” tally down!
He did say he wants to sign two people. I’m still hopeful
It may be a deluded hope but please don’t take it away from me
Spend some fucking money
Don’t think this is a mood thing. Wenger doesn’t care what the papers write, as long as it’s not close the actual business he’s planning.
Wenger is becoming laughable now, this while situation is beyond rediculas. Just can’t wait for this season to end and start again.
He and the club have become embarrassin now and it’s only the fans that have any credibility left.
Hmm, I’m going to go out on a limb here and forward the motion that it might be your grammar and spelling that’s embarrassing rather than Mr Wengers genius ability to wind parasitic journalists up to the point of insanity
Can’t argue with that, I think you may be right my intelligent friend.
Sorry for the typos it can happen and as for the grammar, no excuse I’m just a common cabbie from the east end. One of the old style supporters we used to have before the media luvvies and intellectuals moved in.
Hope my lack of intelligence didn’t offend you to much.
And was meant to be whole not while, but will give you the rest.
Ahh I’m sick of this transfer talk (or lack of it).
Wake me up 1st of feb.
Chamakh scores against us tomorrow
He won’t.
Can’t play as per terms of the loan
Europa League here we come. The man is insulting my intelligence. I understand that he can’t lay all his cards on the table but don’t bullshit me either
I think even that competition is out of reach this year……
Here are some of the (not so) glamorous European squads we’ll be facing next season on Thursday nights: BSC Young Boys, Hapoel Tel-Aviv, FC Viktoria Plzeň, A. Académica de Coimbra, VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach, AEL Limassol FC, CS Marítimo, Videoton FC, FC Rubin Kazan, FK Partizan, Neftçi PF, Hapoel Kiryat Shmona FC, NK Maribor, Helsingborgs IF, Tottenham Hotspur FC Now let’s not all crash the Wikipedia website trying to find out at the same time: WHICH the fuck countries these teams come from, WHAT the fuck did they do to deserve European football, and HOW the fuck do you pronounce their… Read more »
On the plus side, easyjet should land at most of these places, every time I’ve used them they have never managed to get me near the place I thought I was going.
I have the same trouble with cabbies Volders.
*he says running away…..*
Mooro, your fare just went up mate.
I think you have reached for the doom button a little early there mate. We’ve a game in hand and if we win were only 4 points off 4th.
Thats Wengers plan to win a trophy, it all makes sense now! We can easily beat those side and end our trophy drought??? What, no??
Perhaps Europa League is were Wenger want’s us to be? Better chance of actually winning a trophy in the future.
May as well have just answered every question with “meh”.
I am most handsome Arsenal player
Score some goals man..its not a modelling competition..
Show some action Mr Arsene, talking about the transfers is useless.
Plenty of bargains in La Liga especially now that Valencia is in a bit of financial bother, Arsene. Or hadn’t you noticed?
Wenger changed TACK. Not TACT.
Tacking is a sailing metaphor, to change direction into the wind: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacking_%28sailing%29
Tact is a measure of polite decency.
He didn’t go from
“I think Wilfred Zaha is a fine player however his unavailability until next season could mean he’s not the right choice for us”
to
“Wilfred Zaha is a pile of shite and I wouldn’t sign the likes of him, never!”
Yeah, I know, who cares. It winds me up. So there.
Wot an arse.
Gotta love a bit of Kylie.
Being even more dickish about it: tack isn’t even appropriate, since tacking is the process of changing angle while continuing to head in the same direction (into the wind).
About Zaha, Wenger’s gone from “I’m interested” to “I’m not” which is really flip-flopping.
And yes, even I think I’m a tosser while writing this.
From a nautical standpoint, yes, from an idiomatic standpoint, less so.
You already knew that though, just wanted to use the word idiomatic tbh.
So Wenger has rounded the windward mark and is heading back to the dock (i.e. giving up) instead of sailing to the line.
Got it.
Il say this now so can’t be accused of saying stuff in hindsight. But another 1 or 2 players isn’t going to make much of a difference. This squad is so poor and the mentality of the team is all over the place that I think it’s gone beyond two signings now.
And after tomorrow it may be to little to late anyway, we needed a forward and a defensive Midfielder in the summer and to have left it this late in January having already dropped so many points is crazy and just doesn’t make sense.
Two separate issues imo.
We lack quality in depth so we can’t win games when we’re in the right place mentally, that we’re not in the right mental place as often as we should be is THE issue of the last 4 years. A few quality players will help us win a few more games and might gain us CL footballl, the apparent malaise that stops us dead when we get within sniffing distance of a trophy won’t be resolved; hopefully that’ll be helped by a solid British core but *shrug*.
I somewhat agree. I think the team needs to gel more as a unit (and learn how to defend) more than anything, so throwing another two bodies in the mix might not help that. And they’d also need a period to adjust.
But on the flip side, a couple more talented bodies (not necessarily a la Giroud) in the right positions could not only help us with some much needed depth and competition for places, but may also lift the club, players and fans a little.
Especially some players with some Allen Iverson type HEART.
Not to mention they’d be bedded in already for next season when quadruple will be back on again.
Top players want to play in the CL, and want to at least compete for the title, not dropping off 20+ points before 2nd half of the season man come on. Arsenal FC is showing nog signs of ambition what-so-ever, not one bit !! Thats why in a way i understand why players would choose for example QPR over us (yeaah hate me, i saaidddd it), because they show ambition in strengthening the team with quality players (regards the table position). If we don’t qualify for CL, thats gonna make it even harder to attract top players and is gonna… Read more »
Call me overly optimistic but I have seen some great play from the first choice 11 this year and you are all getting caught up with woe after losing to City (sending off early doors) and Chelsea (rubbish first half but quite pleasing second half and 1 goal difference), these are the two super cash clubs who have bought our players and the players we aspired to sign over the last few years so you can write those off and get back to business. If we lose to West Ham and Liverpool I will join you but if win both… Read more »
With you on this. We’ve beaten West Ham when they were doing well. And we dismantled Liverpool at their home ground. Lightning never strikes twice but you never know. The downside being, Wenger needs to bring in some more enforcers.
I agree that the city game was unfortunate and we were robbed by two dodgy decisions and Chelsea but we’ve also lost to Bradford, Swansea and Norwich and looked absolutely shit.
That’s not good enough is it? It’s the same old story season after season.
I’ve not completely lost faith but it’s really hanging by a microscopic thread at the moment.
*two dodgy decisions at Chelsea, sorry.
Agree with Hopeful to an extent, but the big problem is lack of goals. Since the spuds match we’ve had 10 premiership games. 3 of those, no goals. Another three, the only goals were either penalties or own goals. Spanking Reading and a knackered Newcastle was nice, but hides the fact that we have no cutting edge at the moment.
Does Wenger play Fifa?? If he did he would realise quite quick that when you have only two players out, You’re fucked. Buy some fuckin players PLEASE!! And we have the quality, Ive said all year that we should be playing The Ox together with Theo.The Ox Left / Wilshere CAM/ Cazorla CAM/Theo CAM and have Mikel or preferably New Signing DM supporting Podolski or Giroud. Very simple 4-5-1 Or 4-1-4-1. it gives the team so many options. they are all able to interchange and would not be too hard to adjust to play with 2 DM’s. This system we… Read more »
sorry Theo is obviously Right and able to drift centrally…
Is this like how he wasn’t interested in Arteta and signed him a few days later, or is it actually true?
It’s impossible for anyone to read what this guy is thinking. Must be a nightmare to be his wife!
Mrs Wenger: Arsene, would you like fish and chips for dinner?
Wenger: No, I am not interested in fish and chips?
(Mrs Wenger brings in some lasagne)
Wenger: Where’s my fucking fish and chips?
“zaha,nah” cuz we don’t like to fight/beat other clubs to a signature,we’d rather buy the “hidden gems” no one else wants!
Yippee 😉
I wanted us to sign Zaha. As he’s a talented young gooner I feel it would be a real shame if he went to our rivals.
If he goes to our rivals he’s not a Gooner. Same as the skunk, only he’s never actually played for us.
Well if we make no attempt to sign him, as seems to be the case, then you cannot begrudge him going to the soon-to-be-champions. Can’t compare with van Quisling as he had a contract offer on the table and chose to judas himself willingly.
I fucking wouldn’t go there. That’s being a Gooner. If he’s really truly a Gooner inside he wouldn’t go to Man United whether we were after him or not. I would feel sick wearing their shirt.
Whatever happened to us signing Luke Shaw off Southampton – he has just the profile for a Wenger signing (as has Zaha, alas!) – but no news on this in ages???
unfortunately, Luke Shaw penned a 5yr extension with Southampton last week (just before Adkins sacked)
Did anybody see the Southampton v. Everton last night? It was a lacklustre game ending 0-0 (Everton’s Jelavic missed a sitter), but after watching this Southampton performance I would, in a heart-beat, SWAP Arsenal’s back-four for the back-four of Southampton!!! (not joking here): LB: Luke Shaw (17yr old prodigy, already 90% as good as Leighton Baines and will be better than him soon, unlike Kieran Gibbs his crosses/shots from the left are both accurate and pacy) CB: Hooiveld (Dutch guy, not a cunt) CB: Yoshida (Japanese guy, solid as fuck, mentally tough, you wonder if he will ever make a… Read more »
I can see a lot of peeps not renewing if no Champs League next season, but thats why we’ll see some big signings before the end of the month as the Board will be running scared of an empty stadium if things dont improve drastically.
Pretty much the same back four a team as ‘shit’ as Arsenal put 6 past earlier in the season
Not in for Zaha? No shit.
There used to be a time where this would be a spectacular quadruple French double bluff and the professor would not only sign him but another couple of surprise signings (remember when he pulled Sol out of the bag!).
Now, well, we don’t really care as we’ve heard it all before.
so we’ve scored more goals in the first 22 league games of this season than last season (41 vs 39) no, we haven’t replaced the dutch skunk, have we? it would appear that we’ve actually gone one better and produced a team that shares the goals around and scores more (something that everyone was banging on about last year if I remember right) now if we could just stop letting in daft goals. perhaps AW should listen to the keyboard warriors and get rid of Pat Rice and appoint one of the legendary back five… oh, wait fact is the… Read more »
I and most true and mighty Gooners will always sing our hearts out for The Arsenal.
But
You do not need 30 years managerial experience to understand we need to sign players to make our squad better and give it and us a chance of truly challenging for a trophy.
so to sum up we only want players who will “make our squad better” which is essentially what the bloke in the chair is saying on a daily basis but because he’s nice and quite smart he dresses it up a bit for the press so he’s not repeating himself until he’s driven mad by stating the obvious defender and striker have gone out, so my guess is that the club are working rather hard to bring in a defender and a striker. just because they’ve not invited sky sports news to film the whole enterprise doesn’t mean it’s not… Read more »
How often has the club been ‘working rather hard’ only to sign no-one or no-one we’ve heard of who ends up being either shockingly awful or Gervinho?
Honest question here: in the U. S., the major sports get the most income from television rights and licensing, while gate receipts are but a small part of the net income. With EPL gaining popularity just about everywhere in the world and on many tv networks even in the U.S., will empty seats really be the wake up call that people are suggesting?
Stan’s U.S. teams still make a profit with empty seats, is what I’m saying.
Check your assumptions. I remember seeing numbers for the Packers circa 2010 that had their ticket revenue around $50M and their TV/media at $100M. So while the latter was almost exactly 2x, the former wasn’t ‘a small part.’ One of the reasons Arsenal has been upping ticket prices beyond their rivals is that Arsenal had made some pretty poor commercial sponsorship deal—the club’s refrain being “they were good at the time” doesn’t change the fact that they turned out not to be very good. Anyway while those around us were doing £20M kit deals, we were stuck making £5 for… Read more »
This season blows. And it’s amazing how little it would take for me to feel differently. If the players played like they fucking cared about the club, and we played more of attractive attacking football I’d be happy. That’s it. I’d be less fucking annoying about not signing players or selling RvP to a former rival so they could win the league and we could languish outside the CL spots, and I’d be less obsessed with who we weren’t buying, etc., if the squad would just play like they gave a shit. Every time out. It’s their job. And they… Read more »
Sam, I was one of those that didn’t go and not for footballing reasons but wanted to work and earn a few quid because of the weather. A lot of season ticket holders who normally sell thier tickets on now find they can’t as the uptake just isn’t there anymore, that’s why we have so many empty seats at games these days. Support has to be a two way thing mate, we need more honesty from the board about the state of the club and what direction we are going in. I don’t believe it’s all down to arsene that’s… Read more »
Spot on mate.
Dead right, Volders. I really can’t see why Sam persists in supporting what’s going on at the club right now. We must, must make at least a couple of signings in this transfer window. Our squad is so weak it’s embarrassing. The bullshit from Wenger just makes things even more annoying. Apparently, there was a ‘crisis’ meeting yesterday between Wenger and the players. I wonder if any of them was brave enough to ask The Nutty Professor just why he won’t address any of the glaring problems that any fool can see the team has. We are so fucked-up right… Read more »
Its time to sack wenger,if i wre living in the US i will mobilize arsenal fans to protest for impeachmnt of this faulty coach.
Sell kos and per. Both are shit.
Buy someone at least as good as vermaelen/
kompany if not better.
Everything else is probably fine. Walcott as cf.
Giroud as impact sub.
Find someone better than Kompany that isn’t in the champions league and we could afford and would actually want to come. I’m pretty sure it’s not that easy.
and who’s created this fucked up scenario at Arsenal FC?
Per is our best CB this term. So………..no.
Wenger is lying.
GOAL – IVORY COAST 1-0 TOGO – YAYA TOURE (8 MINS)
Gervinho beats Dakonam Djene on the right wing and the ball lands back to Yaya Toure, whose deflected shot from 16 yards beats Kossi Agassa.
heh….
Togo probably should be ahead and it’s captain Emmanuel Adebayor who has squandered a magnificent opening. The striker is let in by Kolo Toure’s lack of concentration and he loses possession of the ball as he is about to round Ivory Coast goalkeeper Boubacar Barry.
hehehe….
USE AND ABUSE ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I hear Sneijder has gone to play in Turkey and for a staggering 7 mil. He could not have possibly improved Arsenal … not at a staggering 7 mil. We need to save that kind of money to pay to World Class players like Walcott. Also Sneijnder could not fit into the Arsenal. He would get in the way of our new style of play of passing the ball around aimlessly, getting caught in possession and not creating any chances. Also he has a good long range shot, but we do not need such players at the team. I mean… Read more »
He went to Turkey with no one else interested at all. So I wouldn’t use that to beat the Club with.
What do you need to know abt Sneijder … proven player, proven quality, Champs League winner, with playing a key part, took his country to the WC final. If no one was interested all the more reason for us to be in there snaring.
We are clearing incapable of snaring player when the big teams are interested.