Wenger Denies Reports Linking Arsenal With Move For €36m Striker

As we approach the opening of the summer window clubs will be intensifying their efforts in the transfer market so we’ll bring you all the latest news and gossip. Today, Gooner Mac brings us the latest on Arsenal’s pursuit of Mario Balotelli.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has dismissed reports suggesting the club are set to sign AC Milan €36m-rated striker Mario Balotelli this summer.

Speculation has been rife in recent weeks claiming that Arsenal are hot on the trail of the controversial Italian international with Wenger believed to have made the 23-year-old one of his top transfer targets, and reports last week suggested that Arsenal’s chief contract-fixer Richard Law has already put together a package for Balotelli worth around £180,000-a-week.

This came after the strikers agent, Mino Raiola, supposedly met with AC Milan officials were it was agreed Balotelli would be sold for €36m this summer, while some newspapers even claimed Wenger has met with Raiola over in Brazil to discuss the finer details of the move.

So Arsenal fans were understandably getting excited at the prospect of making their first big-money signing of the summer. However, Arsene has now moved to play down the reports, insisting links with Balotelli were nothing more than speculation in the media.

The Gunners boss appeared alongside Ruud Gullit on beIN Sport’s World Cup show last night and after being quizzed about his interest in the former Manchester City hitman, Wenger said:

‘No. No, that’s pure invention.

‘We cannot believe absolutely everything that is on internet or is in newspapers.

‘Sometimes it’s created by agents or by press who needs news. But in that case, it’s not true.’ Wenger is quoted as saying by the Daily Mail

At this point we’d usually think that was case closed and rule out any possible move for Balotelli. However, this is Arsene Wenger were talking about here and he’s famed for pulling these kind of stunts.

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The boss usually plays his cards close to his chest and he once claimed he hadn’t heard of Santi Cazorla less than a week before signing the Spanish attacker, so I’d be inclined to take these words with a pinch of salt.

That’s not to say we will defiantly sign Balotelli, but I’d be majorly surprised if we weren’t at least interested in bringing him to the Emirates this summer, despite what the boss says.