The 66-year-old Frenchman, who has been in charge of the Gunners since October 1996, urged the fans to trust his judgement and said he had completed over 400 transfers during his time at Arsenal.
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“The fans are highly influenced by the media and that’s part of the process today”.
“That is why we also buy young centre-backs to develop, because when you have one or two of the quality to make it to the top it is fantastic because it is a position that is hard to find, especially at the big clubs”. Arsenal are the first team-with Manchester City of course-that I watch.
“You can pay huge amounts of money for average players, there are plenty of those, but to find the ones who will strengthen your squad is more hard”.
Wenger was criticised for not risking the France global in the calamitous 4-3 defeat to Liverpool but his gamble at the King Power Stadium was rewarded with an outstanding performance. “I find it a little bit disappointing not having ex-Arsenal players working at Arsenal”, he says.
Pitarch said: “We’re above the FFP guidelines, that’s the reality, and as of today, the four players we’ve signed can not be registered, meaning we need to reduce the cost in a significant manner to register the players and sign a centre-back, which is a priority in case one of the ones at our club leaves”.
An alternative would be to play the inexperienced pair of Calum Chambers and Rob Holding again, and they may potentially find themselves being torn apart by Leicester, who like to play on the counter.
“You could see last week we lost Aaron Ramsey with an injury and now he’s out for one month”.
He added: “I do not understand why people say I am reluctant”. You need to reinforce the team but he’s training every day with the players and may believe they can do it.
Leicester will also be desperate to get back on track after suffering a 2-1 defeat at Hull City last weekend and this really doesn’t have the feel of a game that’s going to be contested between last seasons top two.
The pair could also line up against champions Leicester on Saturday with Wenger admitting it would be a “gamble” to play Koscielny at the King Power Stadium.
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“We made many chances against a team that defends very well”. “I’m very, very happy for the effort, the spirit and the union of the team”.
