Arsene Wenger says he believes Alexis Sanchez will give his best for Arsenal until the final day of his contract, but also that the board have the final say over his potential departure.
The manager has been strident all summer about his desire to keep the Chilean forward, but admits he could be overruled by majority shareholder Stan Kroenke if it came to the crunch.
Speaking about Alexis and his future, he said, “I think what is good is our mutual interest is that he does well for us.
“His interest is to do well, on top of that I deeply feel that he loves to be here and he loves the club and he arrives at a stage of 28, 29 and looks at the quality of his contract but I think he deeply loves to be here.
“I think he will give his best until the last day.”
Arsenal have sold big players in the past and Wenger says it’s a fact of life that he’d have to cope with if an offer came in that Kroenke chose to accept.
“I had to deal many times in my life with big departures, big players,” he said.
“If it happens you have to find a way to survive at the top level and to find a way to make the team efficient.
“You focus more on how the team can be strong enough. I have always been followed by the board, but the final say belongs to the board.”
So, if he’s sold, it seems clear that it’s on Kroenke.
That’s a bit of a shift away from “he is staying”…
Total 180.
Big bid incoming fron Citeh methinks …
God, how depressing. When did we become so weak?
Is there the teeniest-tiniest, insty-winsty little possibly we might get a sniff of aguero in exchange…? Probably not.
Arsenal: Is there a possibility that Aguero might be available if we put together a suitable financial package? No rush, just looking for options…
City: No
Arsenal: Ok, thanks!
Even by our standards, this transfer window is impressively farcical.
How can you say that? Lokks like we might be in profit comes the end of the window… 😀
Utterly hopeless. But this is what happens if you simply have one person making every decision, no matter how big or small.
We just have no professional structure in place to handle the different aspects of player management. So one press conference, we are 100 per cent chalk. Next one, we are 100 per cent cheese.
There appears no medium term, let alone long term strategy, in place.
Loll.. of course, also the ones ‘if we sell our best players we are no longer a big club” and soon after Nasri and Cesc are gone, same with Van Persie. Thing is, our transfer business is so far behind that these desperate acts of salvaging have become a norm. We have sold just one player over 30m and the last player we sold over the price of 15m was probably Van Persie.
I think he’s saying that as a response to the people that constantly complain that he has too much power and that no one at the board challenges him. But let’s not kid each other, Wenger doesn’t have the final say, he has the only say, especially when the board don’t invest shit.
He is not immune from the blame in this either. For the Ox to turn down that apparent offer and other players not interested in signing, plus the other decent or quality players leaving over the years, it does tend to point a hefty finger at them just no longer believing in the manager.
Wenger said that so when Sanchez is sold you take your frustration out on the board that hide behind high walls and in deep bunkers when they choose to
Why does this not surprise me? Wenger insisting Sanchez will not be sold and all of a sudden as we get to the 11th hour he prepares us for the inevitable. Whenever has Wenger not had the final say? If the board sanctions a move for Sanchez it’s because Wenger has okayed it.It’s a cynical announcement and they take us for fools.
As predicted, we are preparing to sell our best player. Yet again
If we look at this another way…I don’t the club has much of a history of making valuable players stay and play out their final year and leave for zilch
tsk tsk poor grammar..there should have been a ‘think’ …too many beers on a Sunday lol
Interesting. A bit of a softening on the stance he’s maintained all summer. I wonder if the board has told him something he didn’t like hearing…
Board would’ve told him a while ago. He knew, he always knew.
Just an act imo.
Or a way of communicating to fans that he’s at odds with the board, so don’t blame him when Alexis is sold.
This is kinda what I’m thinking too. Like a hostage batting at the camera to suggest all is not as it seems.
Too many people on these boards buy fix price off the shelf in real life.
They simply do not understand a ‘market” and one closer to an auction. and one with its fair share of ‘fake news’ generated for either paper sales or by agents.
This is the problem. They are so naive and believe every word that comes out of the press or the gaffer.
Maybe he meant the obvious: Alexis is staying, but if someone offers Neymar/Mbappe silly money, of course that changes things.
Fuck Off Stan Kronke
Whilst yes I completely agree. Realistically you can’t just blame Kronke for this fiasco. AW dicked around on his own contract, & see little to to merit the outcome of that so far. This problem has been a long time coming. Silent Stan is just the icing on the cake.
As much as I get frustrated by Wenger, I do genuinely think he cares about the club and tries to do his best. Kronke just couldn’t give a fuck. We’ve all obediently renewed our season tickets, club level and the boxes are all sold out… £50m for Sanchez? Yeah ok why the fuck not.
The man’s a complete tool.
When you really think about it, I feel that reason Wenger didn’t sign extension because he wanted to move on as well. Ivan Gazidis stating in media that he didn’t found a better replacement which is why Wenger accepted the contract offer because he loves Arsenal so much to left to an incompetent manager. Someone like Wenger would foresee the affect it has on players on his roster like ozil Sanchez not extending their contracts who would again like to know they’re not managed by Alan pardew or Roberto Martinez.
What a load of crap
Yeah, and since he signed, guys like Ox, Ozil and Sanchez simply couldn’t wait to extend their contracts. /rolleyes
The extent some of you will go to always make Wenger this Christ-like figure to die for the sins of Arsenal is absurd.
What are u smoking really?
The usual Californian weed.
Kronke allowed AW to fuck around with his own contract. Strong leDership and a strong board would have not allowed that. Sorry to be so repetitive, but could someone please just wake me up when this shit is over and one of AW or Kronke has moved on.
Stan kronke better sell off his 70% stake to someone else
Why say this unless it’s happening? Honestly.
well if we’re selling him then don’t do it to a PL side…
not much time to get a replacement…this is going to get ugly, isn’t it?
Time for the annual Solomon Kalou rumours
I hear sebastien frey is a top top forward these days…
where is Christopher Samba these days?
The benzema bs is already back.
M’Vila is still out there.
Sounds ominous
Here we go!
Fuck the board. Sick of this shite.
Kronke only cares about the dollar sign at the end of the day.
I honestly can’t wait for the transfer window to close.
The whole transfer window still being open 4 weeks after the season starts is farcical. We shouldn’t be dealing with these ‘who will stay/who will go’ rumours while we have big league games to prepare for
True tony, but WE could also have got OUR shit together far far sooner. Each & every UK club has the same transfer window. What we are seeing, is pretty much a uniquely Arsenal problem of faffing around until it’s way too late.
Is Kroenke responsible for playing a right back at left back, two left backs at centre half and a wide right midfielder at fight back too? Bit rich fir Wenger to start apportioning blame to others for the utter fuck up that us the last 2 months. What other club would allow its prime asset to go for nothing? It doesn’t make any sense not yo sell Sanchez. He’s not signing a new contract. So on the plus side, we get use of him for this season. Bon the minus side, next season we have no player and no cash… Read more »
I agree to a degree rider.if we dont sell then next year we have fuck to invest but this and ozils and the ox should have been aoeted 18 months or so ago and if the signs were they didn’t want to sign then at least we could have planned for it. The club is an utter joke. Catalyst for change.its gone beyond being funny now we are being laughed at by everyone and now its wengers fault.the man is destroying what club we have left and is taking the piss out the fans.8 million a year he takes from… Read more »
This is where I stick my thumbs in my ear and go LA LA LA LA LA LA. It’s so depressing around these parts. Arsenal was here before I did come around and will be when I’m long gone. There are things I love about the club of course not the dicking around that seems to be happening in all departments and the man who has done a lot to make it what it is today. So I’m going to stop banging my head against the wall go enjoy the game tomorrow. What will be will be but just like… Read more »
Just an employee admitting that he doesn’t tell his boss what to do..normal really
Nah, this is a big shift from the former stance that was “he is staying”. Wouldn’t surprise me if we sell to city.
Apart from telling his employers when they can sack him or not you mean that sort of thing ? Havnt you heard and seen this EXACT same scenario played out more than once before?
You mean the same employee that actually had a hand in picking his own line manager?
Deja vu
this is where it gets interesting and the panic buys come in.
At least panic buys would involve buying someone. Though I agree doing so as part of a plan instead of panic would be nice to try out.
we’re gonna end with with some bang average player or two because the club is not going to pay top dollars for established stars.
Then struggle to offload them when it boecomes obvious that they’re substandard.
Let’s just pretend we panic bought Lucas again this year. That way, we can divide his transfer fee in half.
No, I’d be happy with bang average. What we will get is someone who Wenger won’t ever give a chance to.
And with a name like that you’re definitely speaking from experience
Like Ozil?
The man who won’t spend 1 quid over for Suarez decides suddenly to spend 42.3m for Ozil?
OK….
Could we really stop with the Suarez nonsense? The famous bid was to test whether Liverpool would refuse to honor the release clause that was supposedly in Suarez’ contract. They did refuse, and presumably Suarez could have forced his way out, but chose not to. Obviously, Liverpool might have agreed to some ridiculously high offer–double the release clause, or something like that–but no one was talking about anything of that sort.
And there it is.
We are so fucked.
Not necessarily.
IF he should sell to PSG and we get Draxler, Lacazette + Draxler =/> than Alexis + Lucas
Whether he will of course is the multi million pound question.
And we still have to address the midfield.
I applaud your optimism. We ain’t getting Draxler
Alexis is a fantastic player on the pitch but we’ve all heard the rumours about his attitude off the pitch. If we sell for the right price and go big on a replacement be it in this window or the next I’m ready to embrace a change
All little too late mate 5 days and we go back into panic mode!
I think we have enough attacking players to get us to through to January. I’m more concerned about our defence at present
How about the midfield. we were a minute in the second half at Stoke, score nil nil, in control of game, xhaka loses ball and where was Ramsey in the centre forward position. You cannot challenge for league titles with a player like Ramsey in a midfield two.
@Stringer, I agree with you re Ransey, he’s a loose cannon,who is invariably out of position, as you say at CF, leaving his partner exposed. He is, i.m.o not technically good enough.. and a rubbish mid-fielder who is always given preference over others often to the detriment of the team as a whole…
Come Sunday I will be cheering on the boys as for the shape of this club I think hibernation is in order!
I’ve gone up and down on this. At first, I was okay with it if we got something silly like £70m. Then it became clear that in today’s market even that isn’t enough for a top replacement so better to keep. But now I am utterly convinced we WONT win the league, and the fear of being outside the top 4 again but head into next season with no Sanchez, Ozil or Ox (about £200m worth of assets) leaves me terrified So accepting we won’t win the league this season (or with Wenger), rather sell, get Draxler on a long… Read more »
Immenent sell of Sanchez ahead…
FFS Arsenal & AW! Get it together please, & pronto whilst you’re at it.
As I said, likely they will sell him. IF interest is offshore. You never believe a word Wenger says in the market. Its not for us. Its for the potential sellers or buyers. If he is quiet on certain players and says he has enough, it doesn’t mean he won’t buy, it means he wants the seller to think he is not as in need of the player so he can push the price down. Similarly if he says we won’t sell, doesn’t mean it won’t happen, just means the buyer will have to cough up more money to move… Read more »
Don’t know about anyone else but there is a bit about me who hates being an Arsenal fan at the moment. It runs through my veins but my frustration with so much about the club at the moment is painful.
It’s your blood fam
“Injured” – my @rse! He was always going to be sold, but Wenger wanted it to be to a foreign club which aint gonna happen. Problem is his sale will happen too late for us to find decent replacement(s). And don’t get me started on our negotiating team: D!ck Head Law & co! Bring back David Dein!
Obviously a huge bust up at board room level…..Wenger doesn’t want to take the flack for this. Time to earn your £9m per year salary, Wenger!
There is no doubt whatsoever, Sanchez, Ozil, Ox, Wilshere are all going, whether it’s this week or next summer….we’ve five days to get rid and replace. Well done AFC.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but this seems the first time I’ve ever heard Wenger blame the board or Kroenke about transfer problems.
As for Kroenke, he would gladly sell a player to Satan’s Select XI if it turned him a handsome profit.
Nah he always does it. Usually a bit more subtle but nothing bad is ever Wenger’s fault but the glory years were single handedly Wenger’s doing.
Yeah always impressed how few notice this.
Post-stadium failure era is attributed to him and he was tagged ‘Specialist in Failure’ by some. He always attributed his team loss to himself and hardly blame individual player.
We’re a bit of a shambles, aren’t we?
Mm hmm.
A bit? Just a little bit?
Arsene knows Money talks. He has set this up nicely. Noone can blame Arsene if the board overrule him.
What that would do is bloww away this notion some have that Arsene has complete control at the club, but also forces people to realise Kroenke is the reason for the clubs troubles off the field not Arsene.
He has stated since day one he does not want to lose Sanchez.
There isnt much else he can do.
You underestimate the ability of the support to find ways to blame Wenger. He’s played his part in this too. I just hope he’s telling them that if they sell these players out from under him they MUST invest heavily or the club will go on the skids in a big way.
Wenger is responsible for the sporting direction of the club and that’s what’s failing not Kroenke, if players believed in Wenger they would be signing up.
What we’re seeing is the board intervening only at a stage where Wenger’s actions are starting to do material damage to the club, it really should have happened some time ago
This.
The board is intervening to fix things by selling Alexis? By material damage then I am assuming you mean their money, not the footballing aspects. If they wanted to fix the quality issues they’d bankroll real bids for the players we want instead of these skinflint minimally incremental bids.
Yes because if you want to get the next Alexis it’s going to require money.
And as for the bankrolling bigger bids if Wenger wasn’t happy why doesn’t he leave? He tells us how many options he has and how every big club wants him, if the club isn’t giving him what he needs to do his job have some balls and leave
And which players do we want (or specifically Wenger wants) that they haven’t bankrolled? Who isn’t the person that ultimately puts a value to our targets?
Also, I’m sure Keoenke didn’t tell wenger to play to LBs in CB whilst having 3 fit and available CBs, an RB in LWB and a RW/CM in RWB either.
I’m sure the board told him to do that.
Lamar Mbappe Seri maybe If PSG, a direct competitor to Monaco, can now go in there and potentially pull off a double take from them for both Mbappe and Fabinho, the players were there to be bought. To the comment about selling Alexis being how you get the money for the next Alexis: certainly that makes a big leap of faith that the club has more intention than Wenger to spend on an expensive investment. That does not pass Occam’s Razor by a long shot. As for ‘why doesn’t he leave’ – red herring. We all know that (regardless of… Read more »
Yes, Kronke is a problem. But AW is as smart as he wants to be. It’s been ALL smoke & mirrors from him on Alexis. He’s either known he’s going, or that the club won’t let him go for a free at the end of the season (& will therefore force a sale through). You’d be a fool to believe otherwise. Deliberate & intentional lies to the fan base I’m affraid…maybe to protect the owner or board, but deliberate & intentional none the less. Sad days 🙁
Oh do behave.
You think it’d be more prudent for him to come out & say ‘we have no choice but to sell, feel free to put in the shittest offers & we’ll still accept.’
Don’t take it as some sort of personal slight, it’s what he has to do to try & get the biggest bid he can if the board are requiring him to sell.
He had long enough to discuss his own contract. He’s also had big players sold by the board before.
If he felt so strongly about it he could have made keeping Alexis to the end of his contract a precondition for staying on as boss, if the board refused, then he could leave and go with his head high.
As an employee who loves his club, he made a load of mistakes following Kroenke and Gazidis decisions, I also want to see him go, not because he is, just because we need changes, this is why I won’t ever insult the man however however I gladly say to all haters to fuck off as you don’t know shit as much as I don’t know nothing about what’s going on there. After all, maybe board lied to him too, I mean wenger not being behind the board is something that we have never seen in the past. Kroenke is known… Read more »
And thus illustrates why the ‘I hope,we don’t finish in the to 4’ is utter fallacy. This is what we get. A club with a reputation for penny pinching, falls out of the Champions League, losing its top players. Good luck selling a move here to top talent. We’re lucky to get Lacazette and Sead before the shit show really starts. It’s obvious Wenger has been building up a story in an effort to keep the board on his side over the Alexis deal. Alexis goes and nobody substantial comes in, Ozil’s not going to extend. Then we have another… Read more »
Well if the board forces him to sell Sanchez, I’d resign if I were him.
Goodbye Alexis. Hope your last game for us at Anfield is an epic performance. I fully expect him to be gone as we approach the interlull. I just hope we have an alternate plan that doesn’t involve an in-house replacement. I like what I see from Reiss Nelson but to ask him to fill an Alexis sized hole in our side is asking too much.
I think It’s more likely Iwobi, but the same fear goes. That’s a lot of goals to replace.
He will get offered 350k a week by arsenal after the sell of ox!
I said this starting the end of last season, OX was only playing because wenger wanted him to sign a new contract! Only idiots couldn’t see this coming! Sanchez will start no matter what, but if Walcott, Giroud and Ox were leaving they will get extended starts and playing time, don’t expect OX to play this week! look for Iwobi or Walcott to start and they will revert back to a 4-3-3 when Carzola is back
Wenger is extremely intelligent in the way he constructs sentences and tries to be very careful with his words. Otherwise an open and honest speaker like him would have messed up numerous times in 20 odd years facing the English press. This is how I have interperated Wenger’s words this summer: Sanchez: Sanchez is staying for this season full stop. Ox: I really want to keep him but the ball is in Ox’ s court. Ozil: He should sign the extension, we are haggling over last pennies now. Mustafi: We may sell if we can get good price and better… Read more »
Arsene signed Sanchez…lured him to this great club…if he would sooner play for City, loyalty is dead.
Sanchez is a footballer. Football us a job if work. Sanchez wants to change employer. Stop projecting your loyalty onto people who don’t have any.
Alexis will not be sold. Thank you, good night.
Many of us said in Spring that it was time up for Wenger. So far, for me, I’ve seen nothing to change that opinion. Ownership is also a huge problem, no doubt, but please Arsene, it’s past time. You are tarnishing your legacy and this great club is starting 5th-7th place in the mirror.
I believe our club must hit top four this year or fall into long doldrums no matter who manages in 2018-19. I’ve lost confidence in our current leadership to see us through this crucial season.
Hmm … absolving himself in advance of an imminent sale?
Sounds a bit like it. Then again, I reckon he’s been carrying the can for so long it must wear thin.
I don’t think we need (or can afford) throw boat loads of money at the problem, but it’s astonishing how little we’ve spent this window.
I wouldn’t mind taking money for Sanchez. Just name one player who is of his calibre and available, then we can talk about selling Sanchez.
Does anyone know how sales of diamond and club level seats as well as General renewals has gone? Could The bizarre late late show in terms of getting people out of the door at the club be down to an issue with revenue as much as anything else?
If this happens, I’m done with Arsenal. I’m not gonna jump ship to support some other team but I’d not waste my time and energy to a club that has more importance to Money. I’ve never taken Wenger in or out stance, but I certainly won’t search for arsenal news or arseblog after waking up in morning or before sleeping. I won’t take a day off of work to watch the match or procrastinate my school work. This isn’t because I am a Sanchez fan and I’m upset because he’s sold, but because management lied whole summer about this. Sure,… Read more »
This. If the club go on and sell him, the fans are bound to feel betrayed. There is nothing exciting or positive about the club, just huge negativity. And I don’t need that sort of negativity in my life. I love the club and will never even think of supporting any other club. But will have to stop this regular surfing on sites like Arseblog and others for Arsenal related stuff. Won’t go out of my way to adjust my schedule to Arsenal games. Some of you might think that people like me are being glory hunters and all but… Read more »
This guy is a liar.
Who? This guy? Aye. It’s all about the smile.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x304gz3
I do not know what is Wenger’s agenda. All the fan turmoil has not bothered him one bit. The team is in a depressing mess & it is as clear as daylight that we are not going to challenge even for 2nd spot. And Wenger continues to talk a very nice talk, he holds the press & public gatherings spell bound with his speech & witty anectodes, but has no clue when it comes to walking the talk with results on the pitch. I think Wenger will leave Arsenal as he found it – no where near title contenders &… Read more »
Good play from Wenger. We saw how quickly Kroenke moved against the Bloodsports channel when it generated bad press. Stan presumably doesn’t like the attention to ramp up that much, and what Wenger has said implies that if we let Alexis go, the fans with have the owner to blame.
I don’t like the aura of these comments now. We don’t need to be ‘efficient’ either, we need to strive for more than that!
Always massaging words. Stale team with so many contract rebels, and Wenger still throwing dust around. It’s boring. Wenger could be sacked before season ends.
For fucks sake….
Nowadays, I just laugh off every article about arsenal because, nothing new folks. Especially when people still can figure out Wenger’s lies even after all these years, HILARIOUS…
So Sanchez is gone then.
Please Wenger threat the board that you’ll leave if Sanchez is sold, than atleast we’ll get some good out of this farce.
Sell him Kroenke. Hopefully it will piss Wenger off enough to quit.
Please quit.
Its amazing how poor management can impact so badly – I have seen and experienced this personally!!! Wenger letting players find their own solution or playing them out of position is a joke!!! This team is capable of top four with effective management and could be title contenders with a bit more investment (say two or three players) which makes this farce so frustrating!!! I can totally understand why a number of fans have said they won’t bother following Arsenal/football – clubs becoming toys for rich people and their sad egos is ruining the world of football!!!
This is a message to the board. Just as his words on Ox the other day before the contract offer was a message to Ox. Seems something is happening behind the scenes, whether it is an offer or something else. So let’s see what happens tomorrow. Though I can’t wait for all this to be done, so we can just watch Arsenal do The Arsenal in peace. Actually this is what an it would be if transfer season was a game – start good, optimistic with good flow and then instead of finishing it, switch to fuck all.
Just wondering if willingness to sell Mustafi has something to do with appeasing board £ wise unusual for Wenger to let player go after 1 year unless completely unconconvinced by him
Mustafi
Elneny
Gabriel
Perez
What do they all have in common? All players identified by StatDNA. Considering how reluctant Wenger is to change and modern methods, it’s quite obvious what his intentions are.
that’s it then, were fucked.
It’s going to be fun when we end up panic buying Shane long on deadline day for 30m.
Well Goodbye then Alexis, yet another player that we will flog off to Manchester. This club is so poorly run that it has become a laughing stock. Would have thought we would have learned from the Van Persie farce that we would let players contracts run down to the point where the player holds all the aces. Just seen a kid sign for around £100million plus add ons to come. Probably more than we would get if we flogged Ozil, Sanchez and Ox this week. There’s a lesson right bloody there. Just bloody fuming at how piss poor we are… Read more »