• Transfer News

Wenger to be 'actively involved' on deadline day

ESPN staff
August 29, 2014
Wenger plays down need for a new striker

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has dodged questions on a possible move for Monaco striker Radamel Falcao but says he will be active and alert on the transfer front until the window closes on Monday night.

The Frenchman has again insisted that he has an impressive choice of strikers despite losing Olivier Giroud until next year with a broken tibia, but he passed up the chance to end talk of his his club signing Monaco's Falcao on loan.

Wilshere's fast becoming 'Mr Wasteful'

  • Arsenal's Jack Wilshere has not reached the level required to get away with being caught smoking in a Las Vegas pool bar, as he was this summer. His image is currently of a talent in danger of being frittered away, another English prodigy who will not meet his full potential, writes ESPN's John Brewin
  • Read the full story here

"On transfer deadline day, I will be actively involved," Wenger said. "I will be on alert until the last minute of the transfer deadline."

On the links to Falcao, he added: "It is very difficult to go into all that because once again all the negotiations need to be as secret as possible. I promise you that if we sign Falcao, you will be informed.

"It is harder to buy top, top, top players in the final days [of the window]. The last few days are poker games. There are a lot of lies there. Everyone is interested in the same player, but we have experience of this. We can call it bluff."

Critics believe Arsenal will struggle without Giroud, who scored 16 Premier League goals for them last season, but Wenger disagrees.

"If I give you the number of strikers I have at the moment it is absolutely unbelievable," he said. "We have [Yaya] Sanogo, we have [Alexis] Sanchez, we have [Theo] Walcott, we have [Lukas] Podolski. We still have Giroud, who will come back during the season. [Joel] Campbell can play centre forward as well.

"Of course we can be successful [without signing another striker]. The success of a season does not depend on one player that you buy or not. You do it when you think it strengthens your squad, when you find the right player. We have shown in the last two seasons that when we think money has to be spend, we do it, but we want to do it in the right way.

Wenger confirmed his captain Mikel Arteta will not be fit for Sunday's game at Leicester, while full-back Kieran Gibbs is also short of fitness for the trip to the King Power Stadium.

"Leicester are a team with a lot of threat," he added. "They have been impressive in their first two games. They had a good result against Everton and not only that, they came back [from behind]. That shows mental strength. Then at Chelsea they played very well. They will be a big, big challenge for us."

Arsene Wenger says signing players as good as Radamel Falcao late in the transfer window is difficult © AP
Enlarge
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd
ESPN staff Close