Wenger: We were working on £10 million transfer
Arsene Wenger has revealed the club attempted to seal a deal for Romelu Lukaku to join Arsenal ahead of the striker’s transfer to Chelsea in 2011.
Ahead of the Gunners’ 2-0 victory over Everton on Saturday, Wenger was questioned about speculation which linked the Belgian to Arsenal a few years ago.
Lukaku, who has scored 18 goals in the Premier League this season, was rumoured to have attracted the interest of Arsenal before Chelsea were later confirmed as his next destination after Anderlecht accepted a £10 million offer.
According to Wenger, the gossip about the 22-year-old back then was true.
“Yes, we have known him since he was in Belgium but at the time he opted to go for Chelsea,” said Wenger.
“I agree he is developing well and year after year he is better. His finishing is better, his technical link with players is better and he is promising to have a big career because that is always a sign if year after year he gets better numbers.
“No [we did not move for him once he was at Chelsea] because he went out on loan and I did expect him to go back to Chelsea, so after that we are never on the case.”
With another striker in PSG’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic set to be available this summer, Wenger was asked about the prospect of the Swedish international becoming an Arsenal player.
“We have other worries at the moment. It’s short term and we are not on Zlatan’s case.” the Frenchman said
Wenger answered “Look, we just played against [Lionel] Messi, [Luis] Suarez and Neymar. He forgot that Arsenal conceded three goals, tgey could be ten if the three magnifiecent players wanted more , but they looked as if they were just enteryaining themseves .Wenger is saying they couldn’t do well in Europe because the premiership is demanding . Three of the premier league clubs Manchester united , Liberpool and Chelsea won the champion league cup . Arsenal under Wenger and in 16 years couldn’t make any progress , because all along under wenger Arsenal had a poor squad m cheap players with only one or two whom we can say acceptable in the chamion league level. Wenger please leave and let Arsenal win something under a new manager who knows who are the world class players that Arsenal desrve.
Wenger is like Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe he won’t go. He is claiming he built Arsenal, my question is was he not paid for his serices. Arsenal needs fresh minds to pull through.
Listen and listen very carefully, Robert Mugabe is not a failure. The West teamed up against him in his bid to correct the historical wrongs done to his country. They knew that if Mugabe succeeded, the same issue will crop up in Kenya, zambia, South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and so on. I think African Union failed to have allowed the sanction to succeed. The whole world are now happy that Mugabe failed in his attempt to correct the wrongs but mark you, it is not over. This issue will come up again in the next 50, 100, or 200 years. The world should better start addressing it now.
Agree with Bakri . 20 years is too long for any manager at any club.
You don’t find the top Euro and epl teams with managers who have more than 5 years
lease.. Arsenal is the exception.
That is why Arsenal have under achieved the last ten if not five years.Most fans have lost
faith in him.That’s why the gunners need anew man who wont make it so predictable
and will strengthen the defence.Defenc has been neglected by the fm in his quest’
for entertaining soccer which usually ends in defeats against the big teams.
Why does Wenger go on about all the great players he failed to sign at one time or another? Fuck off Wenger, you are simply making out case against you.
Duh…its cos he gets asked about them at media conferences.
You honestly havent noticed a pattern yet..?? He always gets asked about any one who is in decent form who we are about to play. Ie Do you wish you had signed him before he went to xyz…etc etc
Lazy journalists will just keep asking the same questions every week
We would have quite a squad with the players Wenger almost signed. He seems to do this often like he thinks it would please the fans who all want him gone. It just shows how out of touch he is. But then again when there is no pressure from your employer to win games much less trophies you can afford not to be bothered what the clubs supporters think – I won’t be too unhappy if we get stuffed today because this club does not deserve the support it gets.
We won trophies the last two seasons
A.Wenger will not buy players he thinks he should win with these players.iam saying this for 5 years with Ramsey,walcot,mertesaker,arteta,alex chamberlin,giroud he cannot win proper p.league and no chance in c.league.sell those jokers and buy maybe 3 world class players.we need quality not quantity.