Any press conference during the January transfer window is bound to involve a lot of chatter about potential incomings and outgoings.
Wednesday's was no different as Mikel Arteta was asked about his squad, and what our approach will be this month.
This is what the boss said:
on whether he’s hopeful he can add to his squad this month…
What I really want this month is that we have as many players as possible fit and healthy and that we do the best and maximum with those players. After we have a strategy of how we want to evolve and improve the team, and whenever that is possible we are going to try to do it. We all know that this market is extremely difficult.
on links with Dusan Vlahovic during the January window…
I am really sorry to disappoint you, but I am not going to be discussing any transfer rumours. I have never done it, and obviously we cannot do it.
on whether he expects to lose players this month…
Again, this part of the strategy for every individual situation is different, there are a lot of factors that go into making that decision but at the moment everyone who is here is fully involved.
on if clubs will spend more freely in January now fans have returned to stadiums....
I don't know the financial power and position of other clubs. You hear a lot of rumours as you hear about us. Some of them can be possible and some others they are not even considered. I think clubs are always willing to try to improve. We know that there are a couple of clubs in England now that have the possibility to buy players in January, some of them have already done. I'm expecting more activity than last year because clubs are in a better position, but I don't know how far we've come still through this pandemic.
on if it’s realistic to pull off a big-money signing without European football…
I don’t know. Historically this club has always been targeting the best players in the world and the best players in the world are always interested to come here and I can say that situation hasn’t changed. Anytime I have spoken to any player, they were so willing to come, I haven’t faced any other situation and that’s one of our biggest powers, our capacity to get the attention of people to come and join our club, it’s something that is a big advantage for us.
on whether he considered delaying Ainsley Maitland-Niles’ loan move…
We talked about all the possibilities. When you are finalising a deal there are certain things that you cannot miss out if you want to complete that deal. Again, I said the interest of the player was that clear after what happened in the summer that we felt it was the right thing to do and it was a matter of over a day or two that we tried to do that, but as well you have to have the player in the right mindset to compete, knowing that he’s going to leave in the next day. I don’t think that we can make a decision that is going to have an impact in the next six, 18 months, just for a day or two, I don’t think it’s very logically.
on Eddie Nketiah’s future…
The situation is that Eddie is our player and Eddie is going to stay here with us.
on whether Eddie could leave this month…
He’s our player and he’s under contract, so he will stay with us.
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