Arsène Wenger will put the 17-year‑old Krystian Bielik straight into the first-team squad at Arsenal. Wenger confirmed the defensive midfield prospect had joined from Legia Warsaw although he disputed the size of the fee.
Legia have put the total package for Bielik at around €3m (£2.4m) but Wenger said it was less than £2m. The manager declined, however, to say exactly what it was.
Bielik moved to Legia last summer from Lech Poznan and he has made his senior breakthrough this season, appearing in five Polish league games and one Europa League tie. Wenger will keep him at first-team level as he begins his Arsenal career rather than putting him in with the academy players.
“Yes, he will go into the first-team squad,” Wenger said. “He’s a defensive midfielder, 6ft 2in [tall], he has a good energy level and technical level. It’s a gamble but, on what we saw, it’s worth to take the gamble. It’s an awful lot of money for a player if he doesn’t succeed. If he does succeed, then it’s cheap.”
Arsenal fans still hope to see more established January signings in defensive midfield and defence, with Wenger’s hand appearing to have been further forced by the injuries to the captain, Mikel Arteta, and Mathieu Debuchy. Both are out for three months following ankle and shoulder operations respectively.
Wenger recalled Francis Coquelin last month from his loan at Charlton Athletic and he has played well as the holding midfielder. But Wenger retains an interest in Borussia Dortmund’s Ilkay Gundogan although he swerved a question about him on Friday. “He’s not a defender,” Wenger said. “At the moment, we are more looking for the defensive department.”
Before Sunday’s fixture at Manchester City, where Wenger’s team will attempt to buck a trend that has led them to struggle in away matches against the most successful clubs, the explosive form of Alexis Sánchez was a talking point.
Thierry Henry, the former Arsenal captain, has described Sánchez as the club’s best buy in recent years but Wenger suggested the pound-for-pound value of signings such as Laurent Koscielny had to enter the equation. The centre-half is being carefully managed because of a long-standing issue with tendinitis in his achilles.
“It is difficult to compare Koscielny with Sánchez,” Wenger said. “All the signings we made last summer were good. Sánchez is one of the better ones but you have to consider the price you pay, as well, to decide that because we paid good money for Sánchez.”