WENG AND A PRAYER No new striker or captain but Arsene still believes
Fair to say – from the outside at least – that Arsenal seem to be in crisis before kicking a ball this season, which they begin at home to Liverpool today. Yet, despite that apparent worrying state of affairs in N5, Arsene Wenger denies there are any serious problems. Indeed, the Gunners manager is, as ever, making optimistic noises about his side’s chances of ending their 12-year title drought. Forget the fact club skipper Per Mertesacker is out for four months – and deputy Laurent Koscielny is not ready to face the Merseysiders following Euro 2016. Wenger claims Arsenal, 6-1 fourth favourites to rule the English elite come next May, have enough leaders in their squad – whether they are wearing the armband or not. Asked who would be his club captain in German defender Mertesacker’s absence, Wenger, 66, said: “I have chosen him. If you name a captain and he gets injured, you cannot say, ‘You will not be captain any more’. “And he will be assisted by Koscielny.” When it was pointed out that the French c e ntre - h a l f is not available today, Wenger disputed the on-pitch significance of a football skipper these days. The Gallic supremo, also without Brazilian defender HARRY PRATT Gabriel Paulista for two months after an ankle injury, said: “Ideally, we have many leaders in the team and we develop leadership inside the team.
“The captain is only one of the leaders. In the modern game the captain is still important but not like it was a few years ago.
“I don’t know who will be captain this weekend, I haven’t decided yet. Petr Cech was captain last week.”
If that sounds strange given that Arsenal are constantly accused of having no leaders, Wenger’s take on the current striker situation at the club was, arguably, STEVE ROUND has been lined up to join Roberto Di Matteo’s staff at Aston Villa.
Round, 45, is set to be appointed as director of football. He was previously David Moyes’ assistant at Everton and Manchester United.
He made his name as a coach at Middlesbrough and with England, when Steve McClaren was in charge. even more so. He is the first to accept a failure to convert chances last term was the number one reason for the Gunners finishing second in the league – a whopping 10 points behind champions Leicester. But having missed out on landing Foxes hitman Jamie Vardy earlier this summer, Wenger seems ready to stick with the same bunch of misfiring flops. And while backing Olivier Giroud and Co to deliver the goods up front, he also defended the recent lack of incoming transfer activity. Since Swiss midfielder Granit Xhaka was captured for £30million, only teenage Bolton defender Rob Holding has followed him into The Emirates. That is unlikely to satisfy the already restless Gunners faithful, especially when their rivals are spending record sums. Wenger, though, said: “You are talking about the fans – but if you want to make everybody happy you just buy 20 new players and everybody is full of hope until the first game kicks off. Then we are all back to reality. “What is new always makes news. But apart from that it makes noise. But the noise is not necessarily always quality. “Yes, we know our finishing last year was of a worse quality than the year before – and we had the same players. That means it’s a bit cyclical. “I have spoken to the players about the need to score more goals. In addition to Giroud, we have Alexis Sanchez and we have Theo Walcott.” Those comments will do nothing to ease the pressure on Wenger, who has a year left on his current contract. Not that criticism bothers him after 20 years in the job. “The main thing is that we have stability,” he said. “We finished second last season and we have the desire to improve and to win. “We have to jump forward.” WIGAN have signed Bournemouth’s Wales midfielder Shaun MacDonald, 28, for an undisclosed fee.
Latics boss Gary Caldwell said: “He is a quality addition to the squad – a terrific pro.” NEWCASTLE defender Chancel Mbemba is a £7million target for Valencia.
The Spaniards want the DR Congo defender, 22, who joined Toon last summer in an £8m move from Anderlecht.