Arsene Wenger comes out firing over Arsenal’s dire deadline day as he claims Alexis Sanchez wants to stay and Gunners stars are being tapped up
ARSENE WENGER has launched a passionate defence of his disastrous deadline-day dealings.
In a remarkable outburst, the Arsenal boss claimed wantaway Alexis Sanchez is “happy” at the Emirates and WILL sign a new contract.
He also insisted his players are being routinely tapped up by other clubs and hit out at the Arsenal greats for upsetting Mesut Ozil.
The Gunners manager said: “Alexis is committed and focused on Arsenal.
“That’s what makes me believe he will stay. There is a chance he will stay, yes. At the end of the day, he is 29 years old in December, he knows his football years are counted at that level, especially with the evolution of the game now.
“You have to enjoy every minute. As long as you have the quality on the pitch for the club, that’s the one thing that matters.
“I didn’t want him to leave and in the end he didn’t leave.”
Sanchez believed he had forced his way out when Manchester City received a call on deadline day from Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis accepting a £55m bid.
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But Monaco would not let France star Thomas Lemar leave because they had sold so many star names this summer.
Wenger added: “I didn’t want Alexis to leave unless we brought somebody else in with similar quality so then you can defend it.
“Then you have a player with a four- or five-year contract in front of them who is young. But overall, I didn’t want to lose him without having any replacement.
“Lemar decided to stay in Monaco and you have to respect that.”
Wenger hit out at former Arsenal stars Martin Keown and SunSport columnist Ian Wright for criticising Ozil’s lazy performances.
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Ozil claimed the pair victimised him following Arsenal’s dreadful start to the season after they were battered by Liverpool.
Wenger said: “I always have problems understanding what a legend is and what a legend isn’t.
“They all had their weaknesses as well.
“They had their weak games as well and their weak behaviour. Nobody was perfect.”
Wenger also revealed that his players are often courted during transfer windows.
He added: “You cannot be naive enough to think they have not been tapped up. It’s inevitable — that’s why you have to scrap the transfer window before the season starts.”
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