Wenger plays down Sahin rumours

Arsenal boss Wenger plays down Sahin rumours

Jul 27, 2012 6:30:00 PM

The Frenchman spoke about his side's situation in the transfer market following their 2-0 pre-season defeat to Manchester City in China

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has stated that the club have not agreed a loan move for Real Madrid midfielder Nuri Sahin.

A report in the Spanish press emerged today indicating that the 23-year-old would be moving to the Gunners on a season-long loan deal after being withdrawn from his side's pre-season squad travelling to Portugal to finalise a transfer.

Wenger, though, who was speaking after his side's 2-0 defeat to Manchester City in a pre-season friendly in China has moved to quash these rumours, by labelling the report as wrong.

The Frenchman told the club's official website: "We did not sign anybody today, this report is wrong. We are not signing anybody at the moment - we are not close. In the future you never know."

Wenger had recently stated that he aims to make further additions to his squad and Santi Cazorla is reportedly his number one target, but he was far more coy on the future of wantaway striker Robin van Persie.

When quizzed on the Dutch striker's future, he added: "We could come back forever on Van Persie. We have our main strikers at home and Van Persie is one of them.

"But we have Podolski and Giroud who are at home, so we have plenty of strikers. For us at the moment it is to prepare for the season - it is more than any individual player."

Wenger, meanwhile, was happy with his side's workout despite the defeat to City and feels fitness was more important than the result in this context.

He said: "It was lively and both teams tried to play.

"I think we were quite dominant in the first half but suddenly found ourselves down 2-0 against the run of play.

"I feel Manchester City played on a very solid defence with five real defenders and we played forward without calculating too much. We were a bit vulnerable on the counter-attack and that is where we got caught.

"But overall what is important for us is to see everybody play and give everybody competition. We lasted 90 minutes at quite a good level."

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