Full Transcript of Wenger's Pre-match Conference Ahead of Stoke Clash

Good morning Arsene
Good morning,

As a proud Frenchman I’m sure your thoughts are with the
families involved in the tragedy in Paris
Yes, it’s a terrible situation, I think the whole country is shocked, and france is a country where freedom of speech is key, to think that in France today you can die for your ideas and the way you want to speak is absolutely shocking and I think the whole country is in shock, and I hope that it doesn't create a divided country, because that will be terrible for the country.

With due respect to that situation, would you give us the team news please?
The team news is that Ramsey is back in training, Ozil is back in training, Flamini back in training, so we've got 3 players back. Welbeck is still not available for Sunday because he’s a bit short, but maybe next week he will be available and of course Giroud is back from suspension so we have a bigger squad than last week.



When are we likely to see Ozil on the pitch?
He had one training today with the squad for the second time because he was sick, so he certainly will be available for Sunday for selection.  Would I start him or not, I haven’t decided yet.

How big a miss has he been?
Look he’s a professional football player, and he gives you always continuity in your game.  He’s a very creative player and we want all best players available. But the advantage of these players for example Giroud, Koscielny, Debuchy, Ozil, most of the players in the league have 26, 27 games in their legs, they have 4 or 5. So if we can get them ready, fresh they are.

What do you expect following their strong form and recent defeat?
Look, Stoke is a good side and it’s always difficult to play against them. At the emirates we have a good record against them, very good one, and we just want to continue that to dictate our game, and you will speak about that, but I think if it under special circumstances but, we are quite on a solid run apart from the defeat at Southampton, we want to continue that.  

Will Szczesny be back in goal for you?
haven't selected the first eleven yet.

When you take into account what happened at Southampton when it comes to selecting your goalkeeper?
I have. I take everything into account.

How has he taken his punishment after been caught smoking?
I don’t want to talk about that, because what happens in our dressing room stays in our dressing room apart from the fact that it doesn't stay in there.

Has it been damaging for the image of arsenal football club?
I don’t know, I don’t think so. But ideally you want everybody to behave in a perfect way and of course I like personally Wojciech as a person when he makes a mistake he stands up for it, and on that front I think he has as well contributed a lot to the good image of arsenal football club and I think he’s a guy who learns from his mistakes.

I gather that you’ve said if anybody else gets caught doing the same thing on club duty there will be further punishment. Can you expand on that for us?
No.

Is it true?
No because I don’t need to make a big fuss of that. Every club has its own discipline and rules, and I think it doesn’t necessarily need to be public.

What have you made of Wojciech's father has been saying?
I don’t listen to the fathers and mothers and grandmothers and grandfathers.

He feels that he isn't developing as fast as he could as a player. Are you happy with his development?
I’m happy with his development. I try to you him a hard time, you know that.

Lets talk about Lukas Podolski. Hes accused you basically over lack of respect, “he said nothing to me” says Podolski over his departure here. How do you reflect on Lukas Podolski’s time as an arsenal player?
Look, I deny completely. I had many conversations with him about going out on loan, and forget that he needed my agreement to go out on loan, and without my agreement, he couldn’t go. And I deny that completely.

Did he score enough goals as an arsenal player?
The fact that he didn’t get enough opportunity to play, yes, and I knew that amd I gave him an opportunity to go. And why? Because we have many players who can play in his position, and at the end of the day, only eleven can start, you know that, and when a player of his quality doesn’t get enough games at some stage, too much competition is detrimental to the confidence of the players and to the positiveness you know, and we need the right number, and we had too many players in his area. It had nothing to do with his quality but its just down to the fact that we had too many players in the same area.

Do you think we've seen the last of him in an arsenal shirt?
No. it’s just a loan without an option to buy, so that means he is back at the end of the season.

What about Yaya Sanogo, Steve Bruce says he’s interested in bringing him on loan?
Yes, he will go out on loan. Sanogo in my opinion, my option is preferably in England. We are very short of an option today in England, but he will certainly go to an English premier league club.

Is Hull the only club in for him?
Hull is one of the opportunities. They have not positioned with us at the moment. I spoke with Steve last week. He is interested, but he hasn't come back to me about Sanogo.

On Gabriel Paulista
We are not on the case. We keep all that as quiet as possible..

On Loic Perrin
No we are not on the case.

Would you be willing to see Joel Campbell go as part of a deal to anywhere?
I want Joel Campbell to stay here.

What’s the latest with Christian Belik?
He’s a young boy we follow yes.

He says he wants to come
Where do you get this information?

How close is the club to coming to some agreement?
We are not very close at the moment.

Arsene you said Szczesny is a player who learns from his mistakes, has he apologized to you?
Yes, of course.

Why do you think he did that?
I don’t want to talk more about that. I think he’s a serious boy who works very hard, and doesn't need all that. He made a mistake, he’s not the first one, and not the last one.

But the last one at arsenal I suspect?
I hope so.

Chad Evans has been in the news this week. What has been your take on what’s been happening there?
It’s a case I don't want to talk about because I don’t know the case at all.

Harry Redknapp said Chad should be given another chance at football
don't know what happened there, honestly and I don’t feel comfortable to talk about it because I don’t know anything about the case from the start till today.

Has he not been a player that’s interested you?
No.

Can we talk goalkeepers more and looking to the summer, just rumours surfacing more and more that Petr Cech is a target in the summer. Can you comment on that?
No. Petr Cech is at Chelsea, and we have 3 goalkeepers who are top class, and at the moment there is a big competition going on and I have no doubt we have the needed quality.

In terms of Isco at Real Madrid.
Isco? No, because we have plenty of creative players and we are short on the defensive side of our game, but not on the offensive side. We have plenty of offensive players. We just spoke about Podolski who went on loan, speaking about Sanogo going out, because we have so many offensive players who don’t get a chance to play so we wouldn't buy somebody else in the attack.

Dennis Wise’s son has joined the academy this week hasn't he?
No.

How hard is it for a manager to control player’s smoking, because essentially it’s a personal choice.
You can do what you want at your home, and you have freedom to do what you want at home.

So you have no issue about a player smoking in his personal time away from the club
My issue is the players here are judged on performances. Ideally best to have a high level of performance is to behave as well as possible, as close as possible to, but I have grown up in a period where I had to accomplish military service, at the end of the month, we got paid by cigarettes, so we decided to smoke, after of course slowly it became banned, and now it doesn’t exist anymore, but then I was a young boy I grew up surrounded by smokers, I smoked myself after when I didn’t play anymore, when I became a young coach, and we got only alerted later.

The days have gone by when players would smoke or have a drink and then turn up. Are those days unrealistic now, are they gone?
No. human beings are human beings with their strengths and weaknesses, that has not changed, we know it’s not good.

You had issues with Jack Wilshere and Nicklas Bendtner when he was here. Is that an issue you feel you have to address?
No, I don’t think so. Overall these players are professionals. Jack Wilshere was on holiday, and you can't control players on holiday. It’s different.

Is there a massive difference between home and away games against Stoke?
Yes it is, because they are specially motivated against arsenal because they are up there, we create some excitement when we get there, and with their crowd, and overall, it’s always a heated game, but I think this season, it was a winnable game against stoke at stoke you know, and you could feel that we came out frustrated because we had to play when we came back to 3-2 with ten men and should we have stayed with 11, I think we would have come back in the game.

 

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