Wenger tells Arsenal fans to be patient for big money transfers

Arsenal have now started the short run of pre-season games in preparation for the tough start to a crucial Premier League season in which the pressure on Arsene Wenger and the players to mount a serious title challenge is greater than ever after blowing what appeared to be a golden chance last time around and with the gap since our last successful campaign now more than 12 years.

So it was hardly a surprise to hear the Frenchman quizzed on the summer’s transfer activity, or lack of it in many fans’ eyes. As reported by the Evening Standard the boss defended himself and pointed out that the £34 million we paid for Granit Xhaka is still the biggest single signing of any Premier League club so far in this window.

While that may be true and even though the Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis suggested that the squad was already strong enough to compete, Wenger knows that a lot more is expected from him in the transfer market this summer and so he was quick to distance himself from Gazidis’ comments and tell the fans to expect more big money signings, although he did temper this positivity by suggesting that it might not happen until close to the end of the window.

Wenger said, “I am sure that [Gazidis] didn’t want to dampen the expectations on that front. We are very active.

“If we find the right candidates then we will spend the big money.

“We have already spent big. Until now, nobody has spent more on a transfer than we have in this country.

“Even if [Paul] Pogba might fly from Italy to England today, I don’t know… Overall we have made a big investment already but we are active.

“I wouldn’t like to come out on names because if you don’t get them afterwards, people ask why.

“We are active, very active every day and it’s not over. [On Friday] we are on July 22 and the transfer market finishes on August 31.

“You know that a lot happens in the last week, so it’s a long time to go, but we are active and we are working.”

Have these comments from the manager calmed you down Arsenal fans? Do you believe that he and his back room staff are feverishly putting transfer plans together? How many more players or big money transfers do you expect to see?

Bob.

Tags Gazidis Xhaka

37 Comments

  1. This are the same comments Wenger has been recycling for last 5 or 6 years and frankly as usual have to take it with a shovel of salt!

      1. And a pinch of arsenic. So we can cope with all the tales of players who were nearly signed and the inevitable dearth of any better than we already have…

  2. be patient ?
    pfft,

    we waited since gilberto left for a dm
    we waited since rvp for a striker
    we waited since lehmann for a keeper

    5th richest club club in football.
    highest ticket prices in europe

    i will never insult wenger, but he has no more excuses. he hasnt had worthwhile excuses for years now..

  3. more wenger bullsh@t

    and according to Sky, Higuan is having a medical at Juventus now, so another ‘target’ is gone

    I’m assuming ticket sales are slow for the start of the season, so the normal crap is wheeled out, hoping fans will buy tickets in the hope of seeing that big money signing…

      1. Probably buy some 12 year old for 2 mill and that will be the height of it. Plenty of bull but no players as every year.

    1. Higuain isn’t worth the money Napoli want, there are other players we can get for half the price

  4. Last summer Wenger was terribly cheap

    Wenger has actually spent big on a player this summer with Xhaka for £30-35 million (depending on the exact figure he could have been more expensive than Alexis)

    But not the priority

    Spending on Mahrez and Lacazette would be almost same as what Juventus are paying for Higuain. It makes great sense. They are both 25 years old and can serve us for quite some time. Both will help our goal tally and Mahrez will give us even more assists

    £80 million well spent
    Add a CB then about £100 million well spent

    There must be plenty in the war chest. We only spent £10 million last summer
    Come on Wenger. Please do the right thing

    Also keep in mind Chelsea are looking for strikers too and strikers of top quality are limited

    1. Arsenal Girl, that may look like £100m well spent to you as a fan wanting to win things. The owner is a multi billionaire, hard nosed businessman, he is not concerned about winning things, only increasing the value of AFC. He will look at that expenditure, plus the huge wages that go with it and ask, what is the return, how much more income will it bring in, is it worth the expenditure.

      i think that the current policy is to increase cash reserves, so there is only the money available from the current year to spend on player transfers.

    2. “There must be plenty in the war chest. We only spent £10 million last summer
      Come on Wenger. Please do the right thing”

      Find the evidence please.
      I do recall reading articles about people who went over Arsenals finances and claimed we wouldn’t have as much as fans would like to think, the timing of money arriving and leaving allowed the board to say we have tons in the bank… which was true at the time.

      Last year we spent little and you think that means we can spend big now?
      Ever thought that we spent little because we spent big the year before and it was that spending that restricted us?
      £101mil spent that year according to transfermarket.co.uk…

      It would explain why we didn’t spend much last season, it would also explain why Wenger talked to Xhaka 12 months before we bought him and the reason for us waiting those 12 months while buying a cheaper version of Xhaka called ElNeny when we was desperate for a CM.

      People might not like what I say and downthumb this but I would hope you take a look at Arsenals history and see what any fan can see if they look, politics of football.

      Arsenal tend to stumble at a price over £40mil so I hate to say this but maybe we do not have that money to spend… Or rather Gazidis isn’t willing to spend that much and put us in the same situation again. Gazidis has already said that Wenger doesn’t look at a players price when picking targets, maybe this is why him and Dein become good friends as Dein was passionate about Arsenal and seemed to have the opinion that we needed to invest more to gain more… no wonder he got forced out huh?

      A long task for true fans who want to learn more about their club.
      Research the politics of our club since Wenger joined and use hindsight to its advantage.

      1. There is plenty of money in the war chest but kroenke has the key and only opens it to put money in.

        Look at the annual financial statements, in the last five years cash reserves have increased by £68m to £228.2m, but note that debts are £233.9m.

    3. Sorry to disagree with you but I do think that Xhaka is a priority signing…Remember last season when Coq was out for 3 month and we have no one to replace him except for uncle Flam…well i do not want that to happen again…Elneny is decent defensively but the man city game at the end of last season showed his limitations in the role. At the very least Xhaka offer some height and is another decent option in the DM role ala Xabi Alonso..I just hope he would go on to justify his price tag as he definitely need to dominate more..defensively in the EPL for our team than he did for the Swiss at Euro 2016.

  5. unfortunately, were a ‘harrods’ club shopping in the pound basket at the petrol stations !

  6. Wenger would have us walking on a Tight rope….or perhaps dangling from a thread

    Then he would cut us loose…… No Thanks!!!

  7. In my opinion we should have a go at/ buy Mario Gomez as a direct competitor and spend big on a right/left-wing option like draxler or mahrez etc. there just aren’t strikers who i really would like to sign.. not lacazette not icardi not lukaku and higuain would be nice but not at 94 million euro..
    gomez plus draxler/mahrez would be nice or even gomez plus turan and someone like mertens or sharaawy as a surprise signing with risk etc.

    1. Hahaha……….

      Mario gomez , mertens and EL-sharaawy?..

      Someone’s High…….guess who!

      1. as always gathering stupid comments 😉 i never said mario gomez, mertens and el sharaawy.. i said as a last choice i could accept when we bought gomez and TURAN and mertens (sharaawy or somebody else) but clearly prefering mario gomez and draxler/mahrez
        and of course only talking about manageable transfers, obviously i would prefer aubameyang/griezmann but why write a comment which was written a million times by about 10 people? but oh yeah… handicapped people like to hear the same comment again and again.. so lets do it a comment without any new ideas/input:

        Let’s buy Griezmann / Aubameyang and Manolas.. but we should have bought Hummels..

    2. Agreed but I’d personally rather have Aubamayang than Mario – he’s the only other WC striker who could potentially be prised from his club, young, fast and shouldn’t cost more than 65 mil.

  8. the way Arsenal treat their fans are shameful. Sorry for those who buy season tickets, but at the same time not, since you should know what to expect. But if you’re enjoying the games at least then more power to you. But id’ be furious if I saw year after year the board and manager to nothing but stick their finger up their butts while other clubs are splashing the cash and showing actual ambition. No, it doesn’t always work out, but City, United, Chelsea, the clubs we SHOULD be competing with, have all won EPL title within the last 5 years. Arsenal haven’t done that in over a decade, and there’s really no excuse as to why.

  9. MAHREZ’S AGENT WAS NOT AT ARSENAL GAME TO DISCUSS €50M TRANSFER
    By Chris Wheatley

    According to a report on Saturday, the 25-year-old’s agent met with Gunners boss Wenger after Lens’ 1-1 draw with Arsenal to discuss a potential transfer.
    However, Goal understands that the representative of the PFA Player of the Year attended the pre-season friendly at Stade Bollaert-Delelis to watch his client Jean-Ricner Bellegarde, 18, in action against Arsenal.
    Leicester boss Claudio Raineri had told Sky Sports earlier in the week: “It’s over, the market is over here, Mahrez wants to stay.”
    Mahrez will be involved in the Foxes’ friendly match at Celtic on Saturday afternoon.

    hahahahahahhaah
    there you have it gooners.

  10. Arsenal don’t need new players. I believe the current squad, with the right training, is good enough to win the league. ***

    ***This message was sponsored by Arsene Wenger. Arsenals league position can go up as well as down. Ticket prices compared to other clubs is not representing or league position comparisons.

  11. “If we find the right candidates then we will spend the big money”

    Different year, same Wenger, same old story

    Everyday more quality strikers get snapped up by other top clubs, Action speaks louder than words.

  12. Stop talking about it Arsene and get going you old codger. You and that Gazidis do us fans heads in delaying things, making excuses. Saying that we can’t spend money like other clubs do. We are Arsenal FC for gods sake. Not Accrington Stanley. Get spending you caaaaaaaants

    1. Sam-afc, i think you should aim your comment at the organ grinder, not the monkeys. Whilst Kroenke keeps out of the day to day running of the club he will set overall performance targets like, how much money is paid in to cash reserves, note paid in not taken out, cash reserves have risen by £68m in last five years.

  13. Wenger and his annual BS….painful the fans who watch our yearly garbage at d emirates don’t come together and stage a massive protest…aob and akb rubbish…new season, same bs…this mahrez rumour is just that, a rumour…Wenger is too stupid to know what we want…my granny can tell u wat arsenal needs after watching just a game… “that no 12 doesn’t know how to shoot the ball inside the net”, she says….but yet he’s first choice…I wish I cld delete arsenal from my life but d heart wants what the heart wants

  14. Wenger, please take 60m pounds and a 200K per week offer for Lewandoswki and see what happens. Bayern got him for free. Every player has a price. Lewandoswki will score 30 goals a season. Do that now before the closing stages of the transfer wimdow.

    1. Skills1000, i think your comment should be “Kroenke, tell wenger to take £60m ……………”

      Otherwise I like your comment, we need a wc striker to seriously challenge for the PL title and reassure our existing top players that we have ambition and persuade them to stay.

    2. if Bayern sell for 60m this transfer window, let me die the next day…considering pipita(higuain) is going to juve for £78m(assuming ur 60m is in d same currency), hell will freeze over b4 dat happens

      1. Jeff, you may be correct that bm will not sell, however you are incorrect in suggesting that skills1000 is a fool, he is an arsenal fan just like you.

      2. If Lewandowski wants to leave, there is nothing Bayern can do about it. He left Dortmund for Bayern. He can as well leave Bayern for any othet club. Ronaldo De lima left Barca for Real Madrid. Every player(except Messi) has a price. If a serious club turns his head, he will demand for a transfer request. Bayern then would consider selling at high price. That is the truth. No more loyalty in football. Get that.

  15. This article states that wenger was “quick to distance himself from Gazidis’ comments and tell the fans to expect more big money signings”. Other media outlets have said something similar.

    Wenger says “If we find the right candidates then we will spend the big money”. “If” is a big word, it has a totally different meaning to “expect”. Also “big money” means different things to different organisations.

    My interpretation of gazidis comments is that no big player signings are in the pipeline, wenger has said the same thing. The words the two come out with are different but the message is the same, and the message is controlled by Kroenke.

  16. If he don’t buy what we need then he needs to go because I don’t think we are good enough to win the first game of the season tben lestster and I think this season will come down to 3 losses and 3 draws that’s it. Man city have 12 men coz they have pep man united just spend to win under him but he now has a very good team tben kloop well I think tbey will be right up there as they only have the EPL to play for. Spuds have a good manager so do West Ham but I think moving will put a damper on that like our stadium fans are to far away. AW should do all he can to win the EPL or champions league then step down have a year of tben take over England from that dickkk

  17. I was just not happy we didn’t sign Janssen. Other than that, it’s not about big name or big money, it’s about getting the right player.

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