Quintero won’t be part of Wenger business
Alexis Sanchez, Mathieu Debuchy, David Ospina and Calum Chambers have all bolstered Wenger’s squad since the end of last season, while Bacary Sagna and Lukasz Fabianski left at the end of their contracts.
Reports this week claimed Arsenal were in talks to sign Colombia playmaker Quintero, a claim Wenger emphatically rejected yesterday.
“That’s wrong,” he said, before pointing out the dangers of believing everything you read.
“For weeks we were buying [Mario] Balotelli from one minute to the other and it was all wrong. We do not master all the noises that come out.
“I don’t want to give you any names but at the moment we are not after anybody in particular. Are we close? It depends what you call close. What I call close is imminent. On that front, we are not close.”
Wenger, who plans to play the majority of his new signings in this weekend’s Emirates Cup, is happy with Arsenal’s business so far and expects another flurry of activity before the window closes.
“I’m very happy because I did what I wanted, and I am still open to do more,” he said.
“Let’s not forget that we are at the first of August today, and the transfer window closes on the 31st.
“We are a bit ahead of what we usually do, because the availability on the market was bigger and earlier than before.
“The bigger clubs have done their deals earlier, and when one starts everybody follows, and that’s why it was a bit quicker.
“Many clubs decided to do it before the World Cup, and since the World Cup was over, not a lot has happened. But I think the second half of August, the 15th to 30th, will be busy again.
“Everyone takes a breather at the moment because everyone checks in their preparation games what they still need. People have done the biggest part of what they want to do and the last part will be done after the preparation games.”
Wenger, meanwhile, has dismissed Steven Gerrard’s claims that Luis Suarez was too good to move to Arsenal last summer.
The Liverpool skippers said: “Last summer when he was out in the cold and training on his own [following an earlier ban for biting] that’s the conversation I had with him. I said, ‘Don’t go to Arsenal’.
“I would have been really sad and disappointed to see Luis go to Arsenal. With all due respect to them, I said to him that he was too good for Arsenal.”
But Wenger said: “You’re never too good for Arsenal and Steven Gerrard knows that. But I can understand completely that he asked him to stay because he wanted him [Suarez] to play with him and have a chance to win the Premier League. But it didn’t happen, and anyway, Suarez left.”
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