Arsene Wenger spoke to the media on Thursday about transfers, strikers and Olivier Giroud. This is what he said:
on not buying an outfield player…
I have made more than 300 transfers and every time it’s a decision to make. Do you buy the player because he strengthens his squad or not? The solutions we had were not convincing at all. In the end you do not buy to give one hope, you want to buy because the players who come in can help your squad to be stronger. Buying and selling is one way to strengthen your team but that’s not the only way.
on having enough cover up front…
Of course, I am confident I have enough cover and enough quality. The only good news after the transfer window is that finally we can talk a bit about football. That is what we love and we want to focus now on [how to improve], which is the quality of the work that we do and the quality of our spirit and the quality of our competitiveness which is needed in every single game.
on Olivier Giroud…
He has my full support and I believe that is part of being a striker. There is no striker in the world who has not been questioned. When he missed a chance and is booed, that can happen.
on any frustration at not signing a striker…
I told you many times, you look at what happened on the transfer market at the end of the day and you will see. I can understand everyone’s hope, but if you look at what happened it shows you that there is a shortage of solutions out there.
on getting behind the players…
I think as well to support the club and support the team is to stand behind the players. It is not always expecting someone coming… to sort out all your problems. Support is believing in the players in the squad and this is a good opportunity to do that.
on whether Welbeck's injury tempted him to buy...
It doesn’t change anything. You either find someone who strengthens your squad or not. Whether we have players injured or no doesn’t change the problem, that's what I don’t understand from the media. First of all I am surprised that people accused me of lying when I was in the press conference on Friday morning, [at that point] I did not know Welbeck had a bad setback. I did not lie to you, I gave you the information I had.
on being close to signing anyone in the window...
There is no need to talk about that too much now. We have to focus on what is in front of us. I said to you, and I didn’t lie, that we were ready to do something, but you have to be convinced that it’s not just to please people, that it [has to be] an efficient solution. And the efficient solution didn’t turn up. As well you have to be brave enough to say no.
Copyright 2024 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
