If Arsene Wenger signing a new contract doesn’t excite you, then what he said after putting pen to paper on a three year contract extension might do. With the recent FA Cup success and a strong team behind him, Wenger is determined to go all out in the market to get some world class players before the season starts. Speaking about the transfers and whether the fans should expect a busy summer, Wenger said:
“Yes, they should expect that. What I can promise is that we work very hard on a market that is very, very congested with many people who have a lot of money. But we have a big advantage, players want to join us and if we find the right quality I’m sure we can strengthen the team.”
“I believe so because the fact that we have built a stadium, the fact that we have paid a big part of the debt back and the weight of the debt back now is not as strong and heavy as it was before. The fact that the Financial Fair Play rule comes in hopefully will stop [the] craziness that happened on this [transfer] market. With these two [things] together, I think we can fight on a more even level than before.”
And in fact, what he tries to explain is a hardened truth. The Gunners have managed to recover from their stadium debts, which seems to be manageable now and the signing of Mesut Ozil for mega bucks stands as a fact that Wenger is ready to whip out his cheque book.
Having already extended the contracts of the British core and key players like Cazorla and Koscielny, few more signings can transform this side into a genuine title challenger.
“It’s time for another one [to emerge]. It’s the start of a new team and I believe [the FA Cup] victory was crucial in that belief. We have shown signs the whole season that we can be a great side and now it’s [important] of course to have another successful season. We know we have to… have a successful June and July, that’s where you strengthen the team. It’s very important that we are good now in the next two months until the end of August, that we can give to the team some more quality and go into next season with the belief we got from [the FA Cup] win.”
Whether Arsene will splash the cash is for another day to discuss, but as things stand, it does look promising.