On Thursday, Borussia Dortmund’s Michael Zorc released a statement calling Arsene Wenger’s comments on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang ‘disrespectful’, but were they really?

After Arsene Wenger’s press conference on Thursday, Zorc said the following (via Telegraph):

“We find it disrespectful to speak about players of other clubs. We assumed that Arsene Wenger would have enough to do to take care of the performances of his own players.”

From the sounds of things, Wenger must’ve said some pretty controversial stuff.

Let’s have a look.

Initially, journalists asked the manager about the state of any possible negotiations for the striker. The 68-year-old responded, “I have nothing to add to that.

“These kind of things, it’s better when it’s secret and you don’t come out on it.

“Announce it, when it’s over the line. Apart from the deal we just spoke about, Sanchez – Mkhitaryan, that could happen. Nothing else is close.”

Then the media pushed Wenger by asking about the striker’s character. Dortmund have left Aubameyang out of two matches for disciplinary reasons this season.

On whether the striker would fit in at Arsenal, despite these issues, the boss answered: “Yes, because character can be a very positive note and a very negative note.

“I believe overall, you look at the achievement of the player over his career and usually when the career has been very positive, the character has been used in a positive way.”

That was it.

Everything else written about Wenger’s interest is either conjecture or information from inside sources.

If Zorc is offended by the above comments, then I’d find that strange.

The Frenchman said nothing is close, and that he didn’t have anything to say on negotiations.

The only comments he actually made ‘on Aubameyang’ were generic statements about how character influences a player’s career.

The most likely explanation is that some ‘journalist’ relayed the comments to Zorc with a bit more sensationalism. Either that, or they lost the meaning of Wenger’s words in translation.

Hopefully the Gunners can simply explain that with a quick call and move on.

Unless, of course, Dortmund are just feigning outrage to try and bump the price up.

That’s always a possibility.