Press conference

Arteta on... summer transfers, Saliba and sales

Mikel Arteta says he is "very clear" about where he needs to strengthen his squad when the summer transfer window opens.

Our head coach was asked about where he wants to add players, the arrival of William Saliba and whether players could leave.

 

This is what he told the media:

 

on whether he is interested in Thomas Partey...


I cannot talk about being interested in any players that are playing in any team that is not ours, sorry.

 

on what he needs to strengthen in the window...

I'm very clear. I have a very clear plan and the specificity of the players, the positions and squad balance that we need to compete with the rest of the top teams in the country.

 

on William Saliba...

As you know, both clubs had some conversations, at the moment they haven't reached any agreement for him to be able to play in the final. At the end of the day he is our player and we want the best for him. We want to protect him and we want him in the best possible condition for us as well when he joins us but it is something that is being dealt with at club level.



on moving any centre-backs on in the summer...

We will see because Pablo won't be available to start the season and Callum won't be available to start the season. We have nine games left until the end of the season, a lot of things can happen. William has had a lot of issues this season with injuries as well so he has not been a stable player in that sense so let's wait and see. At the moment we're going to have options and we will consider the situation with what is best to do in the future but we don't have much stability at the moment.



on having to sell players in order to bring players in...

Again, we don't know how the market is going to be. Obviously we are putting different plans together to see what we are going to be able to do. At the moment the uncertainty is still big as well, the way we are going to finish the season will dictate a lot of things financially as well so we have to be a bit patient and see what happens.



on will we see smaller transfer spend in the summer...

We have seen different things, the way Chelsea is dealing with the market is different to the rest at the moment. Bayern Munich as well have been really aggressive so I don't know. If you ask me we cannot be a team that has to sell his best player to try to bring in and improve our squad, that's for sure.

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