{"id":3884,"date":"2014-05-03T03:08:26","date_gmt":"2014-05-03T03:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/?p=3884"},"modified":"2014-05-03T03:23:14","modified_gmt":"2014-05-03T03:23:14","slug":"arsenal-manager-not-ready-to-overhaul-squad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/football\/arsenal-manager-not-ready-to-overhaul-squad\/","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal Manager Not Ready To Overhaul Squad"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Arsenal fans should look forward to having another nervous summer as Arsene Wenger claims his squad needs only \u201ctwo or three\u201d signings to be contenders next season.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Gunners’ boos, though reiterated his determination to stay and can wrap up fourth spot this weekend, which should offer a Champions League cash windfall.<\/p>\n

But Wenger is clearly worried about a summer of frustration, even though most Arsenal supporters\u00a0are crying out for a major overhaul of the squad after watching their title challenge fall away this time.<\/p>\n

Wenger said: \u201cIt will be busy, but the main thing for us will be to keep the stability because we feel we are close. We want to add something that makes us even stronger, but, number wise, it will not be massive.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom my experience, the World Cup years have always been very quiet until the end of the World Cup, with no players reachable.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody is focused in the country on their national team and there\u2019s not a lot happening. People are away.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe this year again you will have to wait until July 15 to start going.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are not the only one who decides when the business is done because it\u2019s down to availability of players and the clubs who sell decide that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wenger\u2019s main target will be a top-class striker with Mario Mandzukic\u00a0and Loic Remy two options. He has identified Lars Bender as his No.1 midfield priority and may need to strengthen elsewhere with players leaving.<\/p>\n

Bacary Sagna, Lukasz Fabianski and Nicklas Bendtner are all out of contract, while Thomas Vermaelen could go. Sagna has been offered a three-year deal to stay, but Manchester City remain keen.<\/p>\n

Wenger insisted Lukas Podolski is going nowhere and also said he would love to get business done earlier than Mesut Ozil\u2019s late arrival last August. Arsenal have a habit of late deals.<\/p>\n

Wenger said: \u201cWe have only two players who are out of contract \u2013 Fabianski and Sagna. All the rest need our agreement and they haven\u2019t got it yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe might have someone available that you don\u2019t expect to be available. But you have to be on alert. You speak about Ozil, but if we could have done Ozil one month earlier we would have done it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think overall Podolski is happy here. If you look at the number of games he has played, with the number of goals he has scored and the number of assists he has, he is a very efficient player.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has over 100 caps with Germany and does not have one cap in the middle. Over 100 caps on the left. You cannot say it is not his job.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arsenal fans should look forward to having another nervous summer as Arsene Wenger claims his squad needs only \u201ctwo or three\u201d signings to be contenders next season. The Gunners’ boos, though reiterated his determination to stay and can wrap up fourth spot this weekend, which should offer a Champions League cash windfall. But Wenger is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3885,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60,80],"tags":[37],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3884"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3884"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3886,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3884\/revisions\/3886"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}