Arsene Wenger joked that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was trying to contact him during his press conference before the Carabao Cup semi-final second leg against Chelsea.
The Arsenal boss confirmed that a deal for the Borussia Dortmund forward was one of the "possible movements" that Arsenal were looking to make in the aftermath of the Alexis Sanchez-Henrikh Mkhitaryan swap deal, but that nothing was forthcoming.
The Gabonese forward was pictured "packing up his supercar" in Dortmund on Tuesday , with plenty of people jumping to the conclusion that that meant a deal was on the horizon.
The reality is far more complicated than that, of course, but that didn't stop Wenger making light of the situation when his press conference was interrupted by television interference.
“That was him, maybe," said Wenger, laughing, "standing on the line!”
The Frenchman then elaborated on how he sees the progress of any potential deal.
“Confident or not confident? I don’t know." he said.
"At the moment, we are not close to doing any deal, whether it’s Aubameyang or anyone else.
“You never know how close they are. These are the kind of things that, at the moment, are one of the possible movements. We have other things in mind as well and we have plenty of opportunities in different positions. The final decision is not made.
“You look at players what can they give to the team. Good players can always play together.”
Arsenal entertain Chelsea in the Carabao Cup semi-final second leg tomorrow having played out a goalless draw in the first meeting at Stamford Bridge.