Wenger rules out signing an 'offensive' midfielder this summer
|Joe Cole won’t be arriving at the Emirates Stadium this summer after Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger confirmed that the Gunners are ‘sufficiently covered’ in the midfield department.
Cole, 28, has been the subject of transfer speculation from a whole host of clubs since the England ace was released by Chelsea at the end of June.
However, Wenger has rebuffed those rumours by urging the likes of Samir Nasri and Theo Walcott to step-up next season, with both players fresh due to not being selected for their respective countries in the World Cup.
Speaking to French TV show Telefoot, Wenger said:
“I hope they [Nasri & Walcott] can transform that in the future of their career into even higher motivation, and come back with even more desire to show how good they are.
“I’m not in the market for a offensive or creative midfielder, we’ve got enough players in this area.”
With William Gallas on the verge of completing a move to Greek side Panathinaikos, Wenger is expected to make an addition to the defence before the Emirates Cup tournament at the end of the month.
Give us your views on who you’d like to see come in this summer, by leaving a comment below.
Dont be stupid now wenger! u’ll be making a BIG mistake if no quality is bought into midfield.
Could still be after a defensive midfielder though….
We have plenty of quality and no space for any crap, esp Joe Cole.
at least this shows cesc aint leaving us yet!!!
@Ricky: i don’t think you should be too disheartened, he only ruled out an attacking midfielder not a defensive one, which is what we need. Denilson isn’t good enough at for us.
Here we go again.
I wonder if Wenger keeps his eyes closed during games because otherwise he cant be serious,walcott to step up and Nasri to improve,it would be easier to fetch the moon.You simply cant make this up,Wenger refuses to see this teams short comings or maybe he just dont give a toss because he is on his way out of the door.
Apparently Wenger said on french tv today that he had a chat with the Barca president and told him Cesc isnt for sale. This should be in the papers in the morning. Having said that I would still take Joe Cole on a free as long as he promises to take it in turns to be injured with Rosicky and never at the same time. Cole is quality and he would improve the squad. Even if we give him a 3 yeah contract and sell him after 2 it would be worth it.
Le professor knows better than we do!!!
lol at ricky. we have quality its just not consistant. as for wenger hes right we dont need a OM, just DEF and GK.
he doesn’t know shit anymore,wenger out.
@Icedre218: Rosell and Wenger had a meeting this morning. According to reports in France, Wenger firmly stated that Cesc isn’t for sale at any price.
Some people are f*cking ridiculous. Should Wenger be sacked because he doesn’t think we need an offensive or creative midfielder? That’s the opposite of what we need right now, another small, quick attacker.
At times I feel embarassed that Arsenal have these kinds of fans. Truly shameful.
@ fabo4 & nabz: Lol!! The headline never wrote “OFFENSIVE” midfielder when it was 1st published.. My bad for jumping the gun BUT we deffo need a quality DM bought in.. An attacking midfielder like ozil wouldnt go a miss though. 😉
@Ricky: Yeah I changed it, sorry haha.
with offensive mids we already have n some players still can’t have their place in the squad, do we really need to add one more to make it worse?!
AW is right, all we REALLY need is to add a great defender and gk,,,
looks like hez gonna b a spud den! nasri n walcott will step im sure of it ! cnt wait til anfield a fully fit arshavin + anfield= 3 points!!
I am not going to have a go at Wenger and his transfer policy when the club doesnt have money to compete with others he is doing well.
I would like to see someone like jan vertonghen or federico fazio of sevilla come in.
Both are centre backs who can play in defensive midfield played european, top level football despite being really young.
Its up to Wenger. Going to be intresting who he buys in defence. I cant see wenger going for serdar tasci hes 23 he will go for experience.
wenger drives me insane.So your telling me players like nasri walcott are good enough?They both had dreadful seasons.Open your eyes you muppet wenger.Joe cole is a free transfer and id pay his wages if he could replace players like nasri walcott and arshavin.
I have little doubt that the majority of our young creative players are going to improve this season. That includes Nasri, Walcott, Vela, Wilshere, Fabregas, Diaby, Bendtner and Denilson. Most of those will improve, some won’t of course, or at least not sufficiently. What we don’t have is young improving centrehalves (read Gallas, Senderos, Sylv, Camp), so that is in an area we are now empowering.
Now that it’s clear he won’t sign Joe Cole, I see another defender and possibly Schwarzer to finish things up.
With the WC out of the way, back to normal service!
@Gooner Chris:
Lol! That’ll teach me not to post so soon. lol.
this guy is unbelievable! what happens when song and cesc get injured? denilson running our midfield? we need another offensive player and a defensive player. CB obviously and a defensive mid. a goal keeper too. i know this sounds like a lot but we need trophies and with man shitty and sp*rs improving and roy hodgson surely going to shake things up at liverpoop we may get left behind if we dont act this summer!
I have faith but my god I need reasons to keep it!
C’mon you GUNNERS!!!!!!!
Our problem is the defensive sector. ALWAYS was. we often concede more goals than Chelsea and Manchester Utd, but we score equal or more goals, even with Walcott, Eboué and Denilson playing.
@Ivo…good point…
Ever since Denilson started focusing on defense, he has come under criticism. Brazil could have used someone with his offensive sense in midfield — and he would by no means top my list, all I’m saying is he is better than what they had after Kaka — and he could step back in. But if we still have all the group — Cesc, Diaby, Ramsey, Wilshere, Nasri, Rosicky, etc., what’s the point of overpaying for a player like Cole who has been a decided mixed bag the past few years and does not have the potential of growth to make him better that is available to 21- and 20-year olds.
Wenger shld go all out 4 a def mid,a centre back& a quality goal keepeer.wit these,we r d bomb.
DAMSTER – Le professor knows Jack!If he knew anything we will not go 5 years without a trophy, and I do not buy, “his hands are tied financially” – Joe Cole is free ! Walcott and Nasri (and Diaby)are useless, and it takes years for Wenger to realise what others realise in a season. For instance, we played Cygan, Almunia and Senderos longer than we should have. Wenger is not proactive. He waits for big mistakes to occur in the team before he finally makes a change years down the line. Dont tell me his patience paid off with Henry ! he only had to wait 6 months.
Szcezney should be no1, sign a 1st team CB and DM and song and kolsciensly on bench. Done
Before this story was posted I was just going to say that I don’t see what was the big deal about signing Joe Cole as he’s too similar to all the players we have. Where were we going to play him? The defensive areas of the team have been crying out for strengthening for several years and I’m more concerned about this than worrying about a 28 year old injury proned player who wants a load of cash to sign. We need a quality goalkeeper, a strong defensive midfielder and another central defender with experience and quality.
Seriously joe cole is injury prone and a bit shit. too shit to get in the shittest england team ever. if he sticks to the 4-3-3 then we have enough cover if 1 of the starting front 3 get injured or suspended behind that is just mediocrity, in central midfield we have cesc and the rest are average to poor. we have 2 central defenders and just 1 of each full backs, and i don’t need to describe our goalkeeping situation. we have £50mil from last seasons player sales plus 10-15million from recent season ticket sales, on top of that end of last seasons champions league and premier league money plus the money from sky for this season as well as merchandise sales. i dont play championship manager so i wont speculate on buying more mediocre players because a game says they are good but with that sort of money available i would imagine buying top class players is not just a pipe dream. ozil said he does not want to move in the summer but there are plenty of other players very much available and with the loan already covered i dont see why the money i mentioned earlier could not be spent on making key signings when our rivals have made no key signings to improve their own mediocrity from last season we would be in the best position to push for the title next season. its really not difficult to see we struggled in midfield and defense last year, and we will again this year. i really thought the way we got hammered by manu, chelski and barca last season wenger would have seen this but obviously i was wrong. i guess our only real beacon of hope is that they freeze the season ticket prices again next year.
@Joe71 Nasri and Diaby are rubbish?! Take a trip to Specsavers.
Mesut Ozil? COME ON WENGER, YOU KNOW YOU WANNA!
hart, j cole, f melo, ready
Joe Cole…… is over rated ….. and, although there wouldnt be a transfer fee to sign him, his wage demands are far too much and would imbalance the structure ……
Agreed Akeem….Joe Cole is only needed if Cesc leaves which for me would be the wrong move…We need Cesc to stay he is world class….Joe Cole might be free but it might cause some unrest coz he would be the highest paid player at the club,so i`m not sure he is worth it……….
I never understand how dismissive Arsenal fans are of Nasri. He very rarely has a bad match, but these gooner skeptics lump him with the wildly inconsistent Diaby and Walcott?!? I just don’t get it. I assume its frustration over not getting any hardware in so long, but Nasri isn’t the source of Arsenal’s problems. I’d even say Nasri had fewer bad matches and committed fewer disappearing acts than Arshavin; and that’s after missing 1/3 of the season when Diaby broke his leg in the preseason.
As for Cole, I wouldn’t mind him, but if I had my way I’d sell Rosicky to make space for him. I’m fond of Rosicky, but he’s lost all the turn of pace in his legs. He never gets behind defenders anymore. Nasri, while not a speedster like Walcott, pops up behind the opponent’s backline even in big matches as he did vs. Chelsea and Man Utd. Wenger stuck with him through his injury nightmare and he’s returned respectability, but he’s 30 now and he’s only going to decline and he just simply doesn’t have the pace to play on the wings anymore. Sell him to a German club where he can play behind the striker(s), where his physical abilities, or lack thereof, wouldn’t hurt him as much and let Arsenal sign up Cole. He’s been injury-prone, but he still has life in his legs.
i realy dnt get why every1 has a go at Nasri?he’s a solid player who has a bit of flair and workhorse like attitude both..he showed flashes of extraordinary brilliance in few matches,so did Theo..so nw he hps they do it more consistently wts wrng there?..and with Ramsey fit he’ll be prefered when Fab isnt there n he’s no bad..hp he turns out what Giggs for utd..and for DM what about Fellaini from Everton?! He is tall strong tackles hard and even his distribution is very good..why nt go for him?
cesc has said this ..
“All I can say is that this (World Cup victory) is for all the Arsenal players and fans, they are a world-class club,”
“I am an Arsenal player and proud to be.”
… hmmm
@chris : where did you get that quote from fabregas?
I’m thinking a midfield trio of:
……….SONG………..
FABREGAS…BANEGÀ
Ever Banegà(valencia) can play a holding role while delivering his playmaking qualities, freeing up Song to concentrate solely on DM.
Wenger sign him up!
There is no way arsenal would win anything without signing more offensive players. Wenger bangs on about the defence being the priority – and it is, but when it came to the crunch last season against the big teams we couldn’t create for toffee. Even against spurs until RVP came on. What if those injuries happen again? we need a player who can play on the right because walcott if he has a future it’s down the middle or away from the club. seemples, chew.
@Chamakh’s left boot: good shout on Banega, he had a very good season and would fit in with or style perfectly. great passer of the ball. How about Kadhiera, apparently he only has a year left on his contract.
@ chamakh’s left boot… Ur name is a cheesey ripp off of mine, CHANGE IT!
im glad we wont sign cole he’s a wanker who thinks that he is world class but he never was…. I would be gutted if we sign shwarzer and fulham sign hart, hart should come to the arsenal aswell as a top centre half
thats strange!!
http://www.sport.co.uk/news/Football/40638/Exclusive_Three-way_race_for_Cole_set_to_begin.aspx
it is said we are still after him and tabled already an offer!!!
chris your article is about Gourcuff. They asked him if he is after him. Probably Cole is already signed. Next weeks will show us!!!
@arsenal4ever: Nope, the Gourcuff interview is completely different. If we sign Joe Cole, I’ll be very surprised :).
Chris what do you think will happen to eduardo? i think we should sell him.
I feel sorry for the guy but i dont think hes a premiership player i can see him flourishing in la liga or serie a hes a very good striker but not a striker we need at arsenal when we have carlos vela a younger, faster version of eduardo.
Chris any news on the defender we are after? Surely wenger has to go for experience.
Agree with americangoon.. Dont think cole would make a big difference but would be a upgrade for rosicky for sure.
Celtic Goalkeeper Artur Boruc Joins Fiorentina – Report…..If true we really should sign Frey 30yrs old perfect for us…Better then lloris and all Gk`s linked
Have you all heard about bendtners mrs being pregnant? I’m surprised he never missed the target. No wonder his groins bolloxed, all his energy has gone into porking his royal tart lol
@fab4..i’d prefer banega coz of his passing range plus he can strike a belter from far out.perfect against park-the-bus teams
Lefthandofhenry#
not unless chamakh signs for the spuds
Forgot to add he doesn’t fear getting stuck in unlike our current fair-play duo..diaby and denilson
@Afc kings: @Afc kings: @Afc kings:
We really dont need another lil bendner running around, atleast he Scored somewhere
@rus: Sky sports website
do people think boruc has gone to fiorentina to be number 2? i think we should try and sign frey.. he has very good reactions for someone that looks overweight lol, and he has alot of experience but is still young for a keeper
@ chris he cant command his box that well!!! would prefer the short term solution with an epl proven keeper like schwarzer!! best solution would be imo handanovic!!! great shot stopper with great command in the box!!
Gooner Chris: saw your tweet about JCole. Is that solid info? Be good to be done with the whole saga one way or another.
If Wenger does not sign a keeper then he should just pack his bags and go because everybody knows what will happen if we start with the spanish or polish clown in nets!
At the very minimum we need a GK CB and DM to challenege and even then I can’t see us winning the league with the current squad.