Arsene Wenger is still confident that Arsenal will sign a defender before the transfer window closes even though he admits that it is harder than ever for English clubs to find value in the market, especially at centre-back.
Arsenal are desperate for reinforcements after having to play Rob Holding and Calum Chambers at centreback against Liverpool on Sunday, and losing 4-3. Per Mertesacker and Gabriel both picked up injuries in pre-season while Laurent Koscielny is still returning to fitness after reaching the final of Euro 2016.
Wenger has been trying to sign a defender all summer but the demand is now greater than ever, and he has a long-standing interest in Shkodran Mustafi of Valencia. The problem is that Valencia want £ 30million for the Germany international and Wenger is reluctant to pay that much. Wenger explained at his press conference on Friday morning that inflated prices made it difficult for English teams to get any value.
“When the buyer is English, it is true that it multiplies the transfer by two or three times or sometimes by 10,” Wenger said. “Because if for the same player an English club does not come in, he is worth £ 5m. But if an English club comes he is worth £ 35m or £ 40m or £ 50m.”
Arsenal knew that they would be without Koscielny for some of August, although Wenger said he is “close” to being ready to face Leicester City this weekend. But the injuries to Mertesacker and Gabriel have intensified their need. Wenger said that he would continue to look, and was still confident of signing someone, but said that centre-back was a particularly difficult position to recruit this summer.
“It was important [to sign a defender] before the Liverpool game already,” Wenger said. “I believe it is very difficult to identify people and find them. We have many examples in England of teams that spend a huge amount of money looking for central defenders. That is why everyone is on the market for the same players and very few players as well.” This summer Manchester City have spent £ 47m on John Stones, Manchester United have spent £ 30m on Eric Bailly and Chelsea have not managed to agree a fee with Napoli for Kalidou Koulibaly.
The fact that Arsenal so clearly need a centre-back has only driven prices up further. “If Mertesacker and Gabriel had not been injured in pre-season, we would have been less under pressure to sign a defender, but once you are under pressure, everybody knows you are so it makes you weaker,” Wenger said. “We have been in the market a long time, but if you look around in Europe, all my friends I call are all looking for centre-backs but they cannot find them.”
In happier news for Arsenal, Danny Welbeck's knee ligament injury, sustained in May, is healing quicker than expected and he is now aiming to return at Christmas, rather than towards the end of the season.
“He has an inflammation of his knee, and they had to go in again to see if it is healing well or not,” Wenger explained. “If the healing was not good, he would have been out until April. The news was excellent and he will be back around Christmas. He had a second check, not a procedure, a check with a camera inside. That was the good news of last week, the only good news. That was very positive.” – The Independent