After a long break, I am finally back and ready to provide you with high quality press conference transcripts. Was a little discouraged to do this because of a low sharing rate but I was able to dig deep and work on this file. The transcript is after the cut. Enjoy it and please share with your friends on social media when you are done.
Let's start with your team news ahead of the Emirates Cup.
Well,
we have everybody available weekend from Asia, we have no injuries, and Flamini
has a bit a knock on his ankle, but I will decide if I will involve him or not
over the weekend and Szczesny will not be involved because he might move to
Roma as you have seen it, and apart from that, I hope I can give 90 minutes to
every player
You got two matches in Singapore, you've got another week back here,
how would you assess your pre-season so far?
Very
well because the players are quite fit, focused, confident and happy as well to
play at the Emirates again against two good teams. Lyon is a very good team, a
very young team, but the team who made life difficult for Paris St. German last
year and we face them tomorrow. It will be a good test for us.
It's Lyon and Wolfsburg this weekend. What sorts of challenges are you
expecting these two sides to pose?
Look,
they are two teams for me who you could talk about in the next 2-3 years
because Lyon has a good bunch of young players, finished second in the League
in France behind Paris St. German, and Wolfsburg is the upcoming team as well
in Germany, they have done a good job last season and I think it's two teams
who certainly will be important teams in Europe in the next 2-3 years.
Arsene, you mentioned there Szczesny. What is the latest with his loan
move?
He
could go on loan to Roma.
Where are you with that? Is it pretty much done?
We
are pretty much done, it's down to paperwork, but as long as that's not over
the line, anything can happen always.
Will you have the player receiving club reports in that situation?
Yes,
because we have--Szczesny is a top class goalkeeper and we have three
goalkeepers who are all three top, so for one of the keepers, if he can play
somewhere, it's good.
So will that mean Martinez probably wouldn't go out on loan then?
That's
not decided yet. He could go out on loan, yes.
You heard the latest comments from Karim Benzema's agent who said he is
1000% certain to stay at Real Madrid.
1000%
is a lot, so that looks quite convincing.
Are there any other names that you would like to bring to the club if
you could?
No,
I don't come out with names anyway, I believe we have built up something
special last season that is good team dynamic, good confidence level,
convincing style and efficient style of play. We want to work on that and not
expect too much from outside now that the tools will come from outside. I think
it's inside our squad that our performance has to be efficient. We have to
focus on the quality of our performance inside the group.
You hit the headlines--summer transfer deadline days, the last two
summer transfer deadline days. Can we expect the same again?
I
cannot guarantee you that and I cannot rule it out as well.
A player that you know well, Emmanuel Frimpong has been at the center
of a storm in Russia. He gested to some fans who had given him racist abuse and
the Russian league and now, FIFA is asking for an explanation as to why he is
punished and the club and the fans who have been abusing him haven't been. Have
you seen this and how do you feel about it?
I
haven't seen it, but we had that debate many times, so racial abuse is
unacceptable and has to be first punished and you can accept that Frimpong was
not happy to get that, and I believe that it just shows that it's an endless
battle and we think sometimes maybe too quickly that it's over, but it's not.
You know, he is a kind of character who would react to...
He
is an outspoken boy. He is not scared to speak his mind, but that doesn't make
the racial abuse acceptable.
All be it being a pre-season friendly, as far as some of the fans are
concerned, the season starts this weekend. So, how important is it that you put
on a good show for the fans this weekend?
We
are focused to do that. I believe every single game is a--the respect for your
fans starts by putting the effort in and the performance in every single game,
and we did that in Asia because we have fans in Asia as well, and we want to do
it with our domestic fans of course that week in week out, they are the ones
that come to the Emirates and the only one way to respect them is to give them
pleasure to watch us.
Are you one of these managers take a lot of not just the performances,
but the result as well in pre-season?
Yes,
but--you are right, but the performance dictates the result and you want to
think like that. You want to focus on the performance and think the result is
linked with the quality of your performance.
This time last year, I asked you if it was a big season coming up for
Jack Wilshere. I'm going to ask you the question again. Is it a big season
coming up for Jack Wilshere?
The
same answer again, it is a big season for Jack Wilshere. I hope and I said that
in press at conferences that he can get a full season without any problems, and
then it can be a big season for him and for us as well.
Where do you see him fitting in in the grand scheme of things?
I
personally see him in a creative offensive position. It can be on the flank, it
can be through the middle. But for me, he is a creator in the final third.
Just looking. Have you had chance yourself and your management staff to
sort of look back on last season, 13 points behind Chelsea. Where did it go
wrong, how do we bridge that gap?
Of
course. Where did it go wrong? It's quite easy to explain because after the
first 6 games, we were 11 points behind Chelsea. It was at the start of the
season, knowing as well that we had Champions League qualifiers to play and
that we had players coming back from the world cup who were not ready to play.
Will Welbeck or Sanchez be involved this weekend?
No.
Welbeck has still not recovered, he's not in full training and Sanchez comes
back on the third of August. Ospina comes back on Monday 27th and Sanchez, one
week later.
A lot of this generation of Lyon players were brought through by Remi
Garde, you know him very well. What do you make of Remi's work with those
players?
He
has done very well. Remy, he was there for two years and he has done a great
job. He was first in the academy, that's why he knew these players very well
and Lyon benefits now from the quality of his work. It was a job where he was a
lot under pressure because in Lyon, the demands are very high, but he did very
well.
On the Szczesny front, you said you had to allow him to go out. Would
it not help him to stay with Cech?
Look,
I agree with you, that's a question that comes to your mind when you are a
manager. How much can he grow with Petr Cech next to him, who is happy to share
his huge experience and how much mentally he will be able to live with the fact
that he doesn't play regularly, you know that's always a question in every
mind. I would say it's a position that is easily defendable if you are number
2. If you are number 3, it's much more difficult. So there was no guarantee.
Did you expect him to outbeat Ospina?
I
believe he will have a future at Arsenal, Szczesny because I personally rate
him highly and you do not take a boy--when I took him, put him in the first
team at the age of 20, he has already huge experience, and I don't want that
experience at a very young age to be wasted and that's why I gave him the
opportunity.
Are you surprised or perhaps disappointed at how he has gone from being
your number one to going on loan in such a short space of time?
No,
that's part of our competition. I believe Roma is a big club that play in the
Champions League. They play in a very difficult championship as well and that
is another big experience for him. He is 25 years old. With the experience, he
has already the number of top level games he has, he is absolutely fantastic.
Is it something that he particularly pushed for when Petr came in?
No,
I must say he was open minded. He was ready for a fight here and he was ready
as well to go somewhere and play and I believe that he trusts me on that and he
was really open-minded on that.
This has been a great pre-season so far and Petr Cech coming in and
making his debut in the Asian trophy.
Look,
we finished well the season and Petr Cech. Has integrated very well the team
already and I think the rest is down to performance on the pitch.
Does the squad you have now mean only the very best--that's the type of
player you will be going for?
Exactly.
I believe as well part of the respect for your players is to focus on the
players you have and try to improve and look at the performance. I can
understand that it makes headlines and the medias the amount of money, but what
we want is to focus on the quality of your work and the quality of your players
and on your style of play and on the performance. That's what football is
really about.
People questioning Giroud once again. We seem to have this debate every
year that he is at the top level of players.
Who?
Olivier Giroud.
Yes
of course, he has gone through a bad spell, but he is not the only striker we
have. Welbeck is an English international, Sanchez is a Colombian
international, Walcott is an English international, Giroud is a French
international and I can go on like that. You have not to forget that we have
plenty of strikers as well. Sometimes, players go through a bad period. The
goalscoring, the finishing is a bit more psychic than any other activity in the
team, and when they go through a bad spell, they leave their players forward
for somebody else.
But are you convinced Arsene that you have enough goals in the squad as
a whole to mount a title challenge?
I
think so, that we have enough goals in the squad and what we want is some more
goals from some players who are not really strikers and that was our strength
traditionally that the players who were offensive creative players scored 10-12
goals. That's what we need.
Some of the previous title winners have scored 80, 90, 100 goals.
Arsenal have never really looked like going to that extra level.
You
are right, our target is to improve our number, but we have as well examples of
teams who have scored 90 and 100 goals and not won the championship you know,
and we want I think to combine good defensive efficiency with scoring 10 more
goals. And last season in the second part of the season, we conceded only 13
goals in 19 games. We want to keep that and add a few more goals. I think we
can find that from inside, I'm convinced of that. If we can find it from
outside, we will do it as well.
You said that signing world class strike players won't work now. If you
can't find one anywhere on the pitch, would it be a striker who can help you
the most?
I
do not want to promise you too much, but it can be a reproach to me after in a
press conference or in the media. We are open minded everywhere, we work very
hard to find the quality of the players we can, let's not forget we spent a lot
of money in the last 2 seasons and we bought as well Gabriel in the middle of
the season last year to give him a chance to adapt and to get ready this season
and if there is something more, we are always--we are not reluctant to spend
the money. I know that you would like to paint me as doing that. I didn't do it
for a while because we had not the money. Now that we have, if we find the
players, we will spend the money.
Can I just go back to your goalkeeper situation because by bringing in
Petr Cech clearly you knew that situation would lead to at least one of your
keepers not being happy. How do you keep that line between two goalkeepers or
possibly 3 goalkeepers who all believe they should be starting for you?
Look,
my job is about decision making and selection and decision making means as well
it's not always very popular, but we live in a competitive world and at the end
of the day, the players accept the competition. We cannot rule that out and we
have to accept that. So the competition is part of our job. After, my decisions
are not always popular and I have to accept that, but at the end of the day,
you have to decide will you do it or will you not do it. When you decide to do
it, you have to adapt with the consequences.
By bringing Petr Cech in, are you saying to Szczesny that perhaps
"You didn't have the season I would have expected of you, that's why I
brought in Petr Cech"?
No,
I believe there is 2 aspects in decision making. Does it give you a chance to
make the squad better and then or is it against some of the performances of
your players. In this case, I was just questioning does it make us stronger as
a unit and as a squad, and I decided it has a chance to do. It was not against
Ospina who had a great second part of the season, it was not against Szczesny
who for me is a great goalkeeper. It was just Petr Cech was an opportunity that
I decided to take.
You can only play one of them. It's not a case of you...
Exactly,
it's not like any other position. You are a goalkeeper, you are a goalkeeper.
You cannot play anywhere else. That's why it's such a difficult job to be a
goalkeeper.
Arsene, just very quickly to clarify, Danny Welbeck you say is not back
in full training. Can you give us an update on when...
He's
supposed to start to go outside and run again this weekend, and from now on if
that is positive, I think in the next 3 weeks he will be available.
For the start of the season?
He
will be short for the start of the season in 2 weeks. But in 3 weeks, he should
be alright.
Comments
Post a Comment