New Players For Arsenal

Arsene Wenger finds himself in the same old bind

In one breath, Arsene Wenger offered hope to any Arsenal fans fretting about life after Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri.

With the next, he fuelled the fears of those hoping that last season’s  capitulation, a change of ownership and the loss of star players might spark a change of philosophy inside the Emirates.

‘We are all replaceable,’ said the Arsenal manager. ‘A big player attracts the game to him but sometimes when you lose a big player other people stand up and take more responsibility.’

With talk of sensible  spending and chances for youth, Wenger’s rhetoric is identical to this time last year. Much of his press briefing on Friday was  riddled with contradictions.

He refused to confirm Fabregas and Nasri would definitely leave but there were knowing smiles as he evaded questions.

When they go Arsenal will be compensated to the tune of nearly £60million — but how useful is that with less than three weeks to the summer transfer deadline.

Wenger claimed the Gunners were ‘nowhere near’ cracking a deal to sign Brazilian midfielder Jadson from Shakhtar Donetsk and that the move for Valencia’s Juan Mata was now dead.

More likely are more exits. Emmanuel Eboue has not been given a squad number and is close to signing for Galatasaray and Nicklas Bendtner is no longer considered part of his squad.

‘Now is the time for (Kieran) Gibbs,’ said Wenger on the subject of a left back to replace Gael Clichy and, as for the quest for a new central defender, he argued Thomas Vermaelen was like a new signing after missing most of last season.

‘Everybody looks for centre backs,’ said Wenger. ‘We are not in a supermarket where you go to a shelf and you ask, “Where are the  centre backs or the  strikers?”

'We are in an  international market where all over the world people look for the same players. We have a massive squad and are not short of players.’

Perhaps it was a message for Valencia, Shakhtar,  Everton and Bolton, all with players admired by Wenger who know Arsenal will soon be awash with new cash.

But such negotiating  tactics have their pitfalls. By holding out for six weeks on Fabregas and Nasri, the Gunners believe they have earned an extra £30m.

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To my mind, the root cause of Arsenal’s transfer deadlock this summer has been the way Barcelona gave behaved. What they have done over Fabregas has been straightforward extortion. But the Arsenal management’s handling of it hasn’t been too clever either.

I appreciated the decision to hang tough on the price, but the price that has been achieved isn’t that brilliant. If reports are accurate it is still short of want Cesc is worth. Now, given Fabregas’ own position, and likely motivation to play another season for us, a sale is the right choice. But you can’t help thinking that this price might have been achieved earlier, which would have freed up Arsenal’s transfer-making earlier than the day before the first game.

Did Arsene Wenger believe that Cesc could be talked round again? Did the new relationship between Wenger and Kroenke lead to dithering?

Likewise on Nasri. Did they think he was equivocal about where he played the next season? Whatever. They are now going to have to get a wriggle on. The tentative deal options they will have set up need to be pressed to conclusion double-quick.

Whatever the problem has been, this is a transfer window where you feel Arsenal have had little real control over events and with so little time left I fear it’s going leave us with a big hole somewhere.

The media seem convinced that the players on question are Mata, Dann and Brazilian midfielder Jadson. I’ve reservations about Dann but the clock’s ticking and Vermaelen needs a better partner than he has.

The good news is that the injury list for tomorrow is apparently shorter than feared. Only Wilshere joins Diaby on the sick list.

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