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Arsene Wenger is usually pretty quiet about transfers, unless he wants to make a sarcastic comment about how journalists seem only to want to ask him about transfers. On the other hand, TRANSFERS.
Anyway, during a press conference ahead of Arsenal's friendly with Manchester City in China, he actually said something substantive about Arsenal's transfer plans for the rest of the summer, which is to say that he admitted there are transfer plans for the rest of the summer.
We are not at the end of it. We will still bring players in.
So that's pretty definitive, right?
The manager also said that he didn't want to talk a lot about transfers, because "it is a very fragile subject and a very secret subject." So he didn't deal in specifics, or really say a whole lot more on the subject other than that "we will still bring players in."
When you add Wenger's statements in with this tweet from the well-connected and always reliable @DarrenArsenal1, you start to see the picture a little more clearly.
Have been told feeling is #arsenal are very close on a couple of targets, dominos needs to fall somewhat on one of them to complete deal.
— Darren(@DarrenArsenal1) July 25, 2012
So here's what's going on, if I had to make an educated guess. Arsenal are, in fact, close to a deal with Malaga over Santi Cazorla. In order for that to happen, Malaga have to avoid meeting their debt payment in any way other than the fee that Arsenal would pay for Cazorla (that is, via an injection of capital from the club's owner, Sheikh Abdullah Al-Thani), thus requiring them to acquiesce to the player's apparent wishes and sell him. Also a possibility is this:
Finally some good news coming out of Malaga CF. Moayad Shatat will be running the day to day affairs of the club in Malaga from now on.
— Christian Machowski (@ChristianMcr) July 25, 2012
He is the most trusted associate of the club's owner and has been around the club since the departure of Fernando Hierro.
— Christian Machowski (@ChristianMcr) July 25, 2012
This appointment will finally enable the club to quickly deal with outstanding transfer payments and in and outgoing transfers. Crucial move
— Christian Machowski (@ChristianMcr) July 25, 2012
The appointment of a General Manager type Executive will now force the issue regarding the possible Cazorla transfer.
— Christian Machowski (@ChristianMcr) July 25, 2012
It's also possible that the sale of Robin van Persie is necessary to fund one or more moves, and that once the deal is done Arsenal will move quickly to make further additions. One way or the other, it appears that Arsene Wenger is working hard behind the scenes to make acquisitions to strengthen the team, even if they may not be defensive midfielders. Hopefully things will start happening in the near future, to allow any new players time to settle in before actual games start happening.