News

Extra: Wenger on Sterling and Rosicky

Read some extra quotes from Arsène Wenger's pre-match press conference. For more headlines, visit our Digest page.

on Aaron Ramsey being linked with Barcelona…
That’s not a serious story.

on Callum Wilson…
We look at all the players but we are not looking especially at Callum Wilson.

on keeping contract talks behind closed doors…
I don’t want to single out people but discretion is the best way to deal with things because once it goes public it is very difficult to master and you have so many opinions. I can understand the media is interested in that but for us it always adds difficulties once it’s public.

on whether he’d be put off signing a player with contract problems…
I’m not sure that it is the player who causes the problem. Most of the time it’s not the player who causes the problems. They come as a package, that’s true, but the problems do not always come from the player. Sometimes they come from the package.

on dealing with the [Raheem Sterling] situation…
The agents are linked with the media many times and then their interest is to put the story public, and they do it. Even for the player, the best deals we have done have been when it is quiet, calm and secret.

ADVERT

on who should have won manager of the year…
I see you coming there. Let’s make it simple - it’s always the guy who wins the league.

on wishing James DeGale good luck and if he likes boxing…
I’m a secret boxing fan. But I’m a very bad boxer! I’ve shown you that in my history here!

on if DeGale will win…
I wish.

on if Hazard is his player of the season…
Yes. He has certainly been very efficient in the big games, he has won the Premier League. We had some players who could compete with him like Alexis Sanchez. But overall you would say yes. He has been very influential in the success of Chelsea this season.

on if Hodgson wanted to call up Oxlade-Chamberlain…
I didn’t tell him not to pick him. He has looked at when he played his last game and has then decided. I didn’t tell him not to pick Oxlade-Chamberlain.

on the agent industry being deregulated and if that will make it harder for certain deals to happen…
No, I don’t think it will change a lot because what happened before is that the close friends became the agent and they appointed another agent to do the deal officially. It was not always the official agent who was the most influential in the deals.

on if it means more people want a piece of the pie…
Yes, I think it was already the case. The first job you have to do when you are in transfer negotiations is to clean the world around and say ‘OK, we speak to one person to see who is the most influential to make the negotiations and to conclude the deal’.

on if Rosicky will play a part in any Cech deal…
Tomas Rosicky is not involved in the transfer market at all, he will be with us next season and we do not use the players for that.

on certain players attracting players of same nationality…
No, most of the time it is the players who want to join you who come in. Sometimes they might call each other but we do not get the players to interfere with that.

on whether Rosicky will extend his own deal…
Yes.

See Full List

Fixtures & Results

Premier League
Ticket Info