ARSENE WENGER is ready to take his spending
for the summer to over £40million for the summer — whether Robin Van
Persie stays or leaves the club.
Arsenal are now confident of landing £16million Malaga winger Santi Corzola and will make a bid in the next 48 hours.
Cazorla, 27, who played for Spain twice at Euro 2012, is keen to join
the Gunners and would become the club’s third signing of the summer.
Lukas Podolski arrived from Cologne for £11m and Montpellier striker Olivier Giroud joined for £12.8m.
But before watching his team score two late goals to win their first
tour of the Far East 2-1 against a Malaysia XI, Arsenal chief executive
Ivan Gazidis told Wenger he could continue to chase more targets over
the next two weeks.
Despite insisting otherwise, Wenger still wants Rennes £17m-rated
midfielder Yann M’Vila as he is unconvinced over the fitness of
injury-jinxed Abou Diaby.
Wenger is also set to pursue 17-year-old striker M’Baye Niang who
plays for French club Caen although he has already seen a £6m bid
rejected.
Arsenal’s squad took a six-hour flight to Beijing after last night’s
game ahead of a friendly with Manchester City on Friday and they also
play a game in Hong Kong on Sunday.
On returning to London on Monday, Wenger will meet again with 28-year-old want-away skipper Van Persie.
Wenger wants the situation sorted by August 18 but has told Gazidis
he would prefer to know by the end of next week whether the club will
sell.
Wenger wants an answer despite what offers suitors Manchester City, Juventus and Manchester United make.
But Wenger is understood to have been given a boost that, finally, he
will be allowed to strengthen a squad which still needs improving if
they are to stand any sort of chance of finishing in the top two.
Arsenal are also increasingly confident that Theo Walcott, despite
interesting Chelsea and Arsenal, will sign a new contract as he has just
one year left of his current deal.
Wenger watched his team recover from a goal down to win their opening match here in Asia.
Mohamad Azmi Muslim struck a stunning goal from 25 yards in first half injury time.
Thomas Eisfeld, a substutite for Theo Walcott, struck in the 87th
minute after good work from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain before Chuks Aneke
grabbed an unlikely winner two minutes later.
Wenger played two completely different teams with keeper Vito Mannone the only player to remain on the field.
The Emirates boss said: “We played with two different sides and both
did well. The first half was more significant because the game was
played at a higher pace.
“It was a good work-out for us against a good team. The result was
less important. We got the quality of game we wanted and that was very
positive.
Overall it was a good game and we go home without an injury.
“We still have a lot of work to do. We are far from what we can
produce. We are far away physically from where we want to be.
Technically and tactically, there is still work for us to do. But the
pitch wasn’t easy and the pace of Malaysia was good.
“Don’t forget some of these players have only trained for two or
three days before the games, others four and the maximum was seven days
training.
“Theo was one of the players with only two days of training and I
planned to give only 25 minutes to him or Chamberlain. I felt Theo was
suffering a bit more than Chamberlain and chose to take him off.”
