The Arsenal manager has been criticised for his perceived transfer failings again this summer after signing just three players to bolster his squad.
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Asked whether there was any update on Mustafi, the 24-year-old Germany global, Wenger added: “I believe it is better I don’t speak about any individual player”.
Yet Wenger has warned he will not be panicked into buying a player he is unsure of.
“You are absolutely convinced that I don’t want to spend the money”, he said. “It’s important to spend money the right way”. As always, not the money we haven’t got [because] it is not my money. And it’s not my money. Buying calms the fans down of course.
“That means there are very high wages linked with it and if they are wrong, they will have these players with high wages who can not move anywhere else”.
Arsene Wenger has broken his silence on Jamie Vardy’s decision not to make the switch to London and also weighed in on Riyad Mahrez’s new Foxes contract. “That is not the basic problem”.
Asked if Leicester could finish in the top four, Wenger replied: “Why not?”
“I don’t feel that no”, Wenger said.
“We do not talk about individual players”.
“I don’t want to speak individually about players”, the veteran manager continued.
“He’s one of them!”
But their only signing this summer has been that of Switzerland midfielder Granit Xhaka for a reported £30 million from Borussia Moenchengladbach.
“What I fight against is to think that the only way in football to deal, is to buy”. “It is right when you need the players, and you identify the players”. We have many examples in England of teams that spend a huge amount of money looking for central defenders.
“But to buy in itself is not a quality”.
“But Giroud is following in the footsteps of some very good Arsenal players…” And I think this club has been built on that. The main thing on building the club is based on the transfer policy.
Theirry Henry questioned Arsenal’s standing in the game. You are convinced that I do not want to spend the money. “That is why everyone is in the market for the same players and very few players as well”.
Watch Arsene Wenger give his Arsenal vs Leicester Premier League pre-match press conference in full, in the video above.
Leicester started the defence of their Premier League crown with a surprise 2-1 loss away to Hull City last weekend and Wenger said: “The challenge for them is to do well again and to show that their previous year was not a one-off”.
“That’s part of it and I think on every transfer market you have one or two who have decisions to make and you have to respect them”.
“You give the player a normal holiday, and they are not ready to start the championship, or you don’t give them the holiday and they are mentally and physically jaded”. And if they are wrong, they will have these players with high wages that can not get anywhere.
‘English clubs can suffocate themselves.
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“So on the longer period, that means the financial advantage that the English clubs have will drop”. If they are wrong, they will have these players with high wages and they can not go anywhere.
