Wenger refuses to admit Mustafi deal is certain

Arsenal may have secured the signing of Rob Holding from Bolton already (and he has impressed massively in pre season if I may say so) but it hasn’t stopped Arsene Wenger from keeping his eye on the transfer market for other potential defensive targets.

With concerns still surrounding the team at the back, Arsenal are supposedly looking to add one more new face to the centre of defence and if the rumours are to be believed, then Valencia’s Mustafi is a top target for Arsene Wenger. As the rumours have increased, Arsene was obviously questioned about the links and once again he replied in typical Wenger fashion.

Le Prof remained rather coy on the matter, choosing to say: “We have not closed any deal with anybody at the moment. That’s the answer. You speak about Mustafi. Is it Mustafi or anybody else – we haven’t concluded anything at the moment.”

It’s a typical Arsene Wenger response to the media’s questions, I mean when will they learn that he doesn’t like to divulge on Arsenal transfer news! It leaves a lot up for debate about the German international’s future, as well as whether Arsenal will secure another defender this summer. The Gunners are supposedly on the lookout for an experienced top quality centre back because Per Mertesacker’s injury will rule him out for a large part of the season. Fellow German Mustafi is subsequently the bookies favourite to be the centre back replacement at Arsenal.

In rather related news it is anticipated that Mustafi will not feature for Valencia against Premier Leaue side Bournemouth, after the German picked up a ‘foot injury’ on the day the team arrived in the country. If Mustafi has recovered and does feature, then I suppose we can assume that perhaps any potential deal hasn’t progressed quite as far as some media outlets may be reporting. However if he isn’t anywhere to be seen, then perhaps it could suggest that Arsenal are edging closer towards a deal to bring the experienced centre back to the club. Arsenal reportedly had their initial €18 million bid rejected, with Valencia reportedly suggesting only the €50 million release clause in his contract would be enough. But with Valencia also reportedly needing to balance their financial books, perhaps a cheaper deal for Mustafi could certainly be agreed between parties.

By AH

27 Comments

  1. Reporter: *Gives Arsene a wedgie*

    Wenger: OK, OK……I was busy watching Dawson’s Creek and as a result have done no work since June

  2. What happened to Mustafi being half price? ?
    Valencia now want the full release clause amount ( €50 million ) ? thats probably because Chelsea are now sniffing around the player… So we may aswell forget about this signing happening…. Which may explain why wenger is now looking at C.Palace’s Scot Dann ?

    It looks as if Lukaku is being sold to Chelsea ( 60 million + Remy) and Koeman is using the money to tempt Wolfsburg with a £60 million bid for Draxler! ? wtf!

    Wenger to risk Sanchez in the Scandinavian tour, in an attempt to get him fit for the Liverpool game ?
    Oh well …. Some things will never change ?

    1. Nowadays teams are serious about their transfer business,forget about us Arsenal being left behind by the likes of City,Man U,Chelsea etc I fear the likes of Everton,West Ham will soon go passed us by doing better transfer business than us!

  3. OT.. would you believe that in this country of 3million people there’s not one supporter of Tottenham lol.
    Folks of age 40 and over are mainly Liverpool fans and that have a lot to do with john Barnes, 80’s and 90’s babies are split between arsenal manU Chelsea and mancity.
    ManU have the most but closely followed by arsenal and other two makes up around 15% combined.

    1. @Jamaican_gooner, My country (NIGERIA) has a population of 170m and I have never seen or hear about a single SPUD in the whole nation.
      We mainly:
      Arsenal
      Man United
      Real Madrid
      Bacelona
      Chelsea. In that order.

    2. The coach of Usain Bolt once said and I quote “when your on top you have to work twice as hard to stay on top” arsenal is by no means on top but they are considered to be a top 4 club. My point is while we continue to regress other teams are closing the gap. teams like Spurs( that your laughing at) Westham, Everton etc. Jamaican gooner I am sure you know the quote ” the person who laugh last, laugh the best.” Wenger is playing Russian roulette with this team. Gone are the years when we could start poorly and get a top four finish I guarantee that will not happen this season and be warned arsenal with this team and the injuries that we are famous for will not make top four.

      1. That’s not something you can guarantee, you can guarantee that that is how you feel about it, but it’s just one mans opinion. Nigeria has 170m people, wtf, if that continent sorted itself out, they could take over the world.

          1. I know that, I’m talking about the continent that Nigeria is in. One country in it has 170m people, that’s crazy.

            1. That’s nothing. My country with the size of half USA, populated by over 300 M peoples. The fourth biggest country’s population on earth, behind China, India, and Brazil.

              1. So Indonesia ??? Same here mate, i’m indon too

                The sad thing is we cant even have decent “timnas” from 300 mill people.

  4. Hey AH..if Mustafi doesn’t recover from his foot injury to feature in the game maybe its because Mustafi hasn’t recovered from his foot injury to feature in the game. Anyways I dont understand these CB links..we already have Koscielny, Gabriel, Chambers and Holding. Monreal also once did a shift on central defence when Koscielny had to cover RB so we really are overstocked in that area. If we add another defender someone will have to go out on loan or a permanent deal.

    1. We have two inexperienced 20 year old’s who aren’t ready for the premier league and you say we are over stocked at CB,I don’t know what you’re on about but what I can tell you is we need another experienced CB especially after Mertesacker’s injury

      1. Oh ok so how old was Bellerin when he cemented the RB spot for himself? And what is the whole point of buying players if we wont play them? Chambers cost us £18M …were we paying top money for someone to play in the reserves? Koscielny came to Arsenal being rubbish and was played till he became on of the best defenders in the world..same should apply to Chambers and Holding unless at Arsenal rules are different for people.

          1. So if Kos gets injured for a spell, you guys think Chambers Holding and Gabriel are the league winning type of CBs. CB is allot different from fullback, experience counts for allot, knowing your CB partner well is a big deal. It’s not like fullback, and it’s not like there’s a Bellerin popping up in every position at every club.

            If a club plays a couple of 21 year old’s or younger, at CB, for over half a season, highly doubtful that team will come out on top.

              1. Last Season- first choice winning CBs: Morgan (32), Huth (31), season before- Cahill (29), Terry (34), season before- Kompany (28), Demechelis (33), season before- Ferdinand (34), Vidic (31). It’s the one position you need experienced heads. Also we took a punt on Chambers- to get in there early & hopefully avoid the sort of fee Stones would cost someone now he is a semi-established young England international CB- but Chambers is clearly not viewed as ready for regular action at CB with us. Holding too is clearly a long-term project, while Gabriel is still a work in progress. Not to mention, the Koscielny/Mertesacker partnership is probably our most effective- the one physical/positional defender with the athlethic ball player- I don’t think Koscielny/Gabriel compliment each other in the same way. Solution: bring in an experienced, physical centre back.

                1. Toure was 24 iirc when he helped us go unbeaten, yes he had a mature Sol next to him but isn’t Kos mature now?

                  I would say that the reason behind per/kos partnership is down to Pers communication, he talks to players around him, he is a leader in def.

                  One of the reasons why Kos/Gab didn’t work was the communication issues, there wasn’t a vocal leader between them, Kos is actually quite quiet when it comes to talking between the team in games from what I’ve witnessed.

                  Holding may surprise us all and show he is mature for his age, he may be a total waste of money… I dont know. I seen him call Ospina off his line to get a ball and that is a good impression for me, showing he is someone who may command the back line.

        1. It will be nice to have an experienced CB brought in, however, youngsters should sometimes get thrown in the deep end to see what they are made of. You never know what a player they are until the opportunity arises. Did anyone watch Musa’s goals against FCB?

        2. The days of waiting on players to mature and utilize their full potential in the EPL is gone. There are better teams that will push for top 4 namely, Spurs, Westham, Liverpool, Liecester and Everton so you and your coach of the year ( Wenger) can try that tactic I can assure you it won’t work anymore.

          1. Literally all big teams in the Premier League now invest massively in youth….. what the hell are you talking about?

  5. Wenger will end up signing no one and the board of directors will be delighted and Kroenke can go out and buy another ranch – everyone is happy.

    Everyone except the Arsenal fans but Kroenke and Gazidis doesn’t care about them..

  6. Wenger should buy Ragnar Sigurðsson, he only costs 5 mil and is an insane CB. Was one of the best players of the Euros and the Euro qualifiers. He has already said multiple times that he wants to join a team in the premier league.

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