Arsene Wenger seems to be the calmest man connected with Arsenal Football Club at the minute. While us fans are in the usual summer routine of waiting anxiously for the Frenchman to make some big waves in the transfer market and hopefully wading through a daily mountain of Arsenal transfer rumours, Wenger has got his feet up and is sipping a cocktail or two.
It does not help our nerves when our Premier League rivals are starting to throw their money around like it is going out of fashion but Le Prof seemed very relaxed as he spoke about it after arriving with the Arsenal squad in Singapore, as reported by Arsenal.com.
Noting Raheem Sterling´s transfer from Liverpool to Man City he said, “It looked a done deal for a while, because Sterling said he wanted to leave. For me Sterling is a top-class player. It’s a good buy for Man City. An expensive one, but they can afford it. Personally I like him. I didn’t make a bid because he plays in an area where we have plenty of players. We have Welbeck, Walcott, Chamberlain. Sanchez, Wilshere can play there, Gnabry. He’s a wide player basically, or behind the striker.”
On Man United´s transfer business he said, “We knew they wouldn’t be happy with finishing outside the top three, they will respond. They have made some interesting signings. They came out of the season thinking they have to rebuild their midfield, and they did it by buying two important players – Schweinsteiger and Schneiderlin. They are two top-class players. One who is now coming up to the top level – Schneiderlin, and one who has done it all. It will be interesting to see how they mix with the other players.”
He does not sound too concerned to me and he did not even bother talking about the many moves already made by Liverpool. He did, however, suggest that we might still see a couple more players joining the Gunners before the transfer window closes.
As another report on the Arsenal website reveals though, Wenger is happy with his options and clearly believes that keeping the form from last season going is as important, if not more, than bringing new faces in.
He said, “We have a good level of cohesion and at the moment what is very important to our squad and myself is to see how we can move forward again.
“We feel that we moved forward last season but it’s not enough to think that’s okay, we have to move forward again. It’s much more important about the team now rather than finding the right player.
“I believe we have the quality and it’s now how much we can be stronger together.”
Is Wenger right to be so relaxed about things? Does he already know that we have something special coming up?