“I’m still a big fan of Arsenal“.
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“Many Arsenal supporters will note [Vieira’s] progress, read his sensible views on the club’s direction under Arsene Wenger and wish he was developing as a coach with them”, he writes. “The flawless example is Ajax – you see all the old players working for the club, on the field, in the office – the door is always open for them – but Arsenal don’t do it and I don’t know why”.
“We have plenty of players who want to join us and I would say that even with the players who left, 99.5 per cent of the players have asked to come back even when they left”.
The comments will not be music to Gooners’ ears, of course.
Former Arsenal captain Patrick Vieira believes the Gunners are lacking two of the Invicibles team’s best qualities.
Asked if Akpom was in his thoughts, Wenger said: “Theo as well, it is an important season for Theo, because past year he had a hard period”.
“Overall we created the chances to win it but you could see that they were not champions for no reason last season”. The 23-year-old midfielder actually won 50% of all his duels, though this number should increase once he plays more games in the Premier League.
Arsenal was fortunate to leave Leicester City with a point.
“I’m disappointed not to have ex-Arsenal players working at Arsenal”, he said.
They are without a win from their first two games – and fans chanted demanding Wenger open the club’s chequebook before the transfer deadline.
“I’m a bit fed up to say the same thing. we analyse everything and then make the right signings”, Wenger said. “It’s as simple as that”.
While it’s still early days in terms of discussing the title race, one Arsenal legend has cast doubt over the Gunners’ credentials already, pinpointing the lack of physicality in the side to truly push the likes of Manchester City, Chelsea and Manchester United all the way. “You should be happy. You should be happy; he is English, he is 20 years old, but I’m sorry he didn’t cost £55m, so it can not be good”.
“I think he went down hoping for it”, Holding added.
Yes, Holding played well.
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Wenger’s team also bounced back from a damaging opening-day defeat at home against Aston Villa in 2013/14 by winning eight and losing none of their next nine matches. It is right when you need the players and you identify the players and we are not scared to spend money, but to buy in itself is not a quality but to buy the good players is a quality, and I think this club has been built on that. So, as much as Wenger may not enjoy the never-ending transfer talk, anything less than three points on a weekly basis will lead to complaints about lack of spending.
