Having safely qualified for next season’s Champions League with a third place finish, Arsene Wenger has revealed that he will be adding to his squad and wants to have new players signed up before the beginning of the World Cup. The deal to bring Bordeaux striker Marouane Chamakh to the Emirates Stadium is all but done he revealed, and Wenger says that more players will be on their way as Arsenal aim to improve on a squad that the their manager accepted was lacking in depth.

Conceded
“Overall we had a season with a good attitude, strong character, the team has improved a lot on that front, but overall, we conceded too many goals to win the championship. We didn’t have the players available in the last six weeks to fight for the championship, and when you go into the final sprint, you need your squad available. I believe we had too many injuries.

 

 

               Listen to Arsene Wenger's thoughts on a frustrating season

 

 

Short
“When you have six players unavailable in the last five or six games, and in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, you get away with it for one or two games, but it doesn’t work on the longer basis. It is a shame because we have gone out in the quarter-final of the Champions League against the holders and we have been beaten by Chelsea and Manchester United who have a strong squad, so, we were just a fraction short. I believe that we want to improve in quality, so it’s not necessarily a big number of players needed. Overall I believe that you don’t win the championship when you concede forty goals.” When asked which positions he’d like to strengthen, Wenger would just say, “ Leave that to me,” in the knowledge that he needs a goalkeeper and at least another two defenders.

Positive Sol
One defender who has shone since his January return to north London is Sol Campbell, who Wenger revealed has been a credit to both himself and the game and who he strongly hinted would at Arsenal come next season.  “Sol is a player who has given us a lot since he has come back he has been very positive on the pitch and off the pitch. So we will have to keep some experience in the dressing room.”

New Champions
Witnessing events across the capital will not have been easy for Wenger who saw Chelsea claim a third Premiership title on Sunday, but the Gunners’ boss was happy to offer his best wishes to Carlo Ancelotti and his team. “Congratulations to Chelsea and Ancelotti and the Chelsea players, they won the championship and I believe that Ancelotti behaved very well all season, so congratulations to him.” With their 4-0 win over Fulham, Wenger stressed the importance of Arsenal finishing in a Champions League spot, and especially with such an important few months coming up in the summer.

Beyond Expectation
“For us it was important to finish well, we did it, we didn’t need to speculate on the defeat of Tottenham. I’m very happy that after a World Cup, you don’t have to play a qualifier of the Champions League, because it’s a very sensitive game and the games are getting harder every year. For us it is I believe that if you look a long way back, we have gone beyond expectation, if you look back to July. But of course we are still frustrated, one month ago, we were in touch with championship but didn’t win it.”

Scathing
Wenger was scathing of the new Premiership rule which will allow teams to have a squad of just 25 players, but went on to reassure the long suffering Arsenal fans that he feels their pain too and will be aiming to bring silverware to the Emirates Stadium next season.

Love the club
“ I believe what the Arsenal fans want from me is that I bring in top players. Thomas Vermaelen for example, today he is a big player. What the fans want concerns me. One thing I have in common with our fans is that we love the club and we want the best possible team. We have to be in a position where we can pay our wages at the end of the month. We have to respect our business rules.”  

• Add New Search
• Comment On This Article

Write comment

Your Contact Details:

Name:

Email:  do not notifynotify

Comment:

Title:

Message:

Security

Please add the above anti-spam code.

!joomlacomment 4.0 Copyright (C) 2009 Compojoom.com . All rights reserved."