by Lewis Ambrose

Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger spoke to SkySports ahead of Wednesday’s 4-0 win over Singapore Select XI.

The boss spoke about the transfer window, explaining why it is so difficult to sign players who will improve the team and playing down the importance of new signings. The Arsenal squad is already big and Wenger is reluctant to disrupt the balance of the squad this summer.

“Many clubs now in Europe have huge resources and there’s more money available than players,” explained Wenger.

“That’s why it’s not easy.”

The striker situation at the club is a good example. Plenty of people seem to think Arsenal need a new striker, that we can’t win the Premier League with Olivier Giroud as first choice.

Of the Premier League players to score more goals than Giroud per 90 minutes last season, only four started 10 or more games (Papiss Cissé started 11 and came off the bench 11 times).

The Frenchman also provided more key passes per 90 minutes than all but one of those players. Can Arsenal really sign an upgrade this summer?

Those players who would undoubtedly be upgrades are so incredibly limited (perhaps to Karim Benzema and Robert Lewandowski) that there’s an incredible premium and them and they are already playing for Europe’s biggest clubs.

As a result the selling club don’t need money, can charge an incredible amount, and you would have to fight off a huge amount of competition to sign them.

“The transfer period is a very difficult period because we live in a society now where people just want ‘new’, said Wenger.

“What’s new, what do you buy?

“(Every week) I leave international players on the bench and sometimes cannot even put them in the squad so it has to be exceptional potential to come in now.”

It is clear that Arsenal don’t have the space in the squad to take risks. Anyone who comes in has to improve us, beyond any doubt. But that answer doesn’t satisfy many fans, nor does it quieten the media who pile more and more pressure on the club to spend overinflated fees on players who may or may not be better than we already have.

Wenger is keen to stress that the current squad has been built carefully and not just anyone can fit in.

“The credit you get is basically just linked with the amount of money you spend or the amount of players you buy.

“We forget that football is as well construction, patience, hard work on the pitch, cohesion.

“It is just neglected at the moment. Most of the time the teams who stay for a long period together are successful.”

A few years ago Wenger’s issue was that he couldn’t keep his teams together. The club has come a long way as the burden that was Emirates Stadium has now left us with the ability to buy; Arsenal can finally compete on the transfer market,and that will help us compete on the pitch.

“The time where we have to sell our best players is over, for sure. We have 5-6 years where we were on financial restrictions, we had to balance our books, we had to pay the stadium back. This time is gone.

“It was a very sensitive period and mentally a very difficult period but now we are over that and now we are competing with everybody on the financial front and I think we can keep our best players.”

That, along with the ability to strengthen the side with real quality, leaves Arsenal in a fantastic position to compete regardless of what business is done this summer.