Arsene Wenger says that players want to come to Arsenal, and he is therefore confident that the signings needed by the end of the month will come.
According to the Arsenal manager, "anything could happen" before the window closes on September 2.
I'm confident we'll make the signings we need because of the desire of the players to join us...While we maybe don't have as much money as everybody writes, we have some funds available to do transfers.
Lately rumors have surfaced that Arsenal have interest in Real Madrid's Karim Benzema and Angel di Maria, though there's been no official confirmation from anyone at Arsenal yet. Yohan Cabaye of Newcastle has also been linked, and there are rumors that Mathieu Flamini will re-join Arsenal on a free transfer. And despite appearances, the action hasn't just started now. Wenger:
We've worked on it very hard but it hasn't come off as quickly and as well as we wanted.
You'd be surprised how early we acted. You can spend a lot of time - not going on holiday - and work on things without it coming off.
In football you have to deal with any situation and be patient. As long as the window is open, anything can happen until the last minute.
Still, news that Arsenal are - and yes, have been - working on bringing players in is encouraging. Wenger has backed his team but also acknowledges that the squad has needs.
I’m very, very happy with the squad we have. When I tell you that, it’s about the quality of the players I have. With the number, at the moment we are short.
Therefore I would be a bit worried that number-wise, we are not strong enough to cope with all the targets a club like this has. We will not go into the new season with only the number of players we have.
We all would certainly have liked this done earlier - surely the manager included - but the things he's saying are encouraging, as are the level of rumors around the team. Now we will just have to see who's willing to cooperate with Arsenal's needs.