While Welbeck’s bid to return to full fitness is a welcome boost following Arsenal’s opening-day 4-3 defeat to Liverpool, Wenger is still short of defensive options.
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Frustration is rising among Arsenal fans after the club posted large profits, as well as sitting on considerable amounts of cash reserves – yet Wenger has only bought Petr Cech and Granit Xhaka in the last two summer windows to supplement the first team. “The ideal 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”. “It is risky. English clubs suffocate themselves by buying players at a high price with high wages, if it goes wrong you are left with high wages”.
Following Saturday’s draw with Leicester, Arsene Wenger hit back at criticism of his reluctance to spend.
Koeman said: “Today it is Joe Hart, tomorrow it will be someone else”.
Regardless of who it is, Wenger has made it clear that Arsenal will be completing the signing of a new defender prior to the end of August even if he may not fit into the club’s recruitment policy.
“If it is a guy of 32 and we think he has the quality then we will do it”, Wenger added.
Vieira, who is now managing New York City FC in the U.S. added, “But on the other side the team is not doing as good as it used to and you need to win football matches”.
“They are highly influenced by the media”, he said.
The Gunners are light in defence following injuries to Per Mertesacker and Gabriel Paulista but Wenger’s been unwilling to speak about names in recent weeks. “Leicester are a good team – they did not win the league and only lose three games last season for nothing”. “You could see that Leicester had some mental qualities that explained why they were champions last year”. Why do you say I’m reluctant, I don’t understand that?
Although I agree in principle that being a collective team is better than throwing a bunch of players together in hope they can win something, most teams have quite simply integrated a few players into an already strong side.
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Vieira has in the past bemoaned Wenger’s failure to keep his former players involved, saying in May 2015 that his former boss had turned down the opportunity to bring him in as a coach.
