Wenger declined to speculate on Vardy’s reasons for rejecting Arsenal’s approach but said “you have to respect the decisions of people”, and he heaped praise on Mahrez, saying the winger “has been outstanding” for Leicester. Granit Xhaka is the only senior signing made this summer, with the club having missed out on a series of players as they look set to lose ground on their closest rivals in the Premier League.
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With no progress on a potential move for Valencia’s Shkodran Mustafi, Laurent Koscielny could even be risked for the trip to face Vardy and Leicester on Saturday less than six weeks after playing for France in the Euro 2016 final. “We have plenty of players who want to join us”, he told reporters at a pre-match press conference. If it is a guy of 32 and we think he has the quality then we will do it.
Wenger added: “We are working very hard”.
“You are absolutely convinced that I do not want to spend the money, but I reassure you we are ready to spend the money”, he added. It is not my money.
“Buying calms the fans of course but we have to make sure we spend it the right way”. But after another season where their title challenge disintegrated when it mattered most Arsenal fans must be wishing their pragmatic manager would throw caution to the wind just this once. The £850m already spent by Premier League teams this summer has coincided with the first season when the new £5.1bn generated from the sale of broadcast rights will be distributed among the top-flight outfits – and Wenger says English clubs are seeing valuations soar as a result.
Unfortunately injured alongside Aaron Ramsey in that game, Iwobi will have to earn his way back into the starting eleven and that could prove tough with the likes of Mesut Ozil returning in the coming weeks. “If for the same player an English club does not come in, he is worth £5million, but if an English club comes he is worth 35 or 40 or 50”.
“You can play huge amounts of money for average players – there are plenty of those – but to find the ones who will strengthen your squad, that is more hard”. Because they buy players at a very high price. 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. At the moment I am not concerned about that too much, I am more focused on us responding well to Sunday.
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“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”.
