Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger is determined to keep his squad to together and prove the Gunners ambition. Wenger was commenting on the futures of Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri who have been strongly linked with moves away from the club.
Fabregas has yet again been linked with a return to boyhood club Barcelona and Nasri has been linked with moves to Premiership rivals Manchester City, Chelsea and Manchester United.
“Samir’s situation is clear for me – he stays,” Wenger reiterated when he spoke to reporters in Malaysia.
“I’ve told you that we are in a position where we can say ‘No.’ And we will [in the case of Nasri].”
“You are the same people who reproach me for not spending money and now you reproach me for wanting to spend it!” replied Wenger.
“It is in the interests of the Club,” he went on. “Imagine the worst situation – we lose Fabregas and Nasri – you cannot convince people you are ambitious after that.
“And even if you lose Nasri, to find the same quality player, you have to spend again the same amount of money. Because you cannot say that you lose the player and you do not replace him.
“I believe for us it is important that the message we give out – for example you see about Fabregas leaving, Nasri leaving – if you give that message out you cannot pretend you are a big club.
“Because a big club first of all holds onto its big players and gives a message out to all the other big clubs that they just cannot come in and take [players] away from you.
“We worked very hard with these players for years to develop them and now it’s time for us to keep them together.”
Submitted by Football Friends
