Arsene Wenger didn’t give anything away about how close Arsenal are to signing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, admitting the Gunners aren’t close to a deal yet.

Wenger was asked how confident he was of Arsenal completing a deal for Aubameyang. The 68-year-old responded: “Confident or not confident, I don’t know. We are not close to a deal for Aubameyang with Dortmund or anybody else.”

Perhaps Wenger learned from the mistakes of his previous press conference. Last week, the manager gave an honest response to questions about how Aubameyang’s character could affect a team.

Dortmund sporting director Michael Zorc fired back by calling the Arsenal boss “disrespectful”. It’s much safer to go back to giving cryptic and confusing answers that don’t give anything away.

For a few days, the Aubameyang transfer saga seemed to be heading for the inevitable conclusion that he joined Arsenal. Unfortunately, things seem less certain now. The Mirror report that Dortmund are willing to wait until the summer if they don’t find a replacement.

To me, that sounds like exactly the same situation Arsenal found themselves in last summer. The Gunners told Manchester City they’d only sell them Alexis Sanchez if they found a replacement. The Chilean moved to Manchester United on Monday night.

If Arsenal want to sign Aubameyang, they need to get it sorted before something similar happens. Otherwise they might have to watch the striker head off somewhere else in the summer.

Despite all the excitement this week, there’s still a way to go yet.