Arsene Wenger 'on alert' in transfer market as Arsenal target further signings

James Benge29 July 2017

Though Arsene Wenger admits that Arsenal have been quiet in the transfer market in recent weeks the Gunners boss remains “on alert” as he prepares for a title push.

Arsenal broke their transfer record earlier this month with a £52million swoop for Alexandre Lacazette, their second signing of the summer following the arrival of left-sided defender Sead Kolasinac on a free from Schalke.

Wenger had spoken at the end of the season of a desire to add three more players, with further reinforcement to the Gunners midfield believed to be his focus.

Two bids for Thomas Lemar have been knocked back with Riyad Mahrez a fall-back option should Arsenal not be able to prise their first-choice target away from Monaco.

And Wenger insisted his summer of spending is far from over, telling the Arsenal website: “What’s next is to remain active. Not a lot [has] happened.

“I believe there are actually two ways to improve the team. First of all to improve the quality of what we do in training to improve the squad and improve the players we have, and secondly to bring more top-level players in.

“The difficulty is to bring top-level players in because you pay a huge amount of money for very normal players at the moment. As well, all the big clubs are chasing the same players and that provokes huge inflation. Maybe this will be the first time we [football clubs] pay over £200m, maybe over £300m with Neymar and around £200m with [Arsenal and Real Madrid target Kylian] Mbappe.

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“So there is a huge inflation. But we are active, we are working hard and I think we have done well with Kolasinac, we have done well with Lacazette and we are continuing to work.”

Arsenal’s domestic season begins in less than a fortnight when they kick off the new Premier League campaign at home to Leicester but Wenger hinted that supporters may have to wait until the final days of the window, which closes on August 31, to see any more incomings at the Emirates.

“There’s the usual acceleration in the final part of August”, Wenger said. “But I think you have always to be on alert every day, because a good opportunity might turn up.

“Sometimes people you are after for a long time are not available and suddenly they become available. So you have always to be on alert. That's what we do.”