Arsène Wenger jokingly dismissed a question about Paul Merson’s return to football, with the 49-year-old rumoured to be joining Welsh four-tier team Caerau.

The Express reported that Merson could be making a return to playing with the Welsh side, but when Wenger was asked about the rumours in his pre-Watford press conference, he smiled and responded: “We speak about professional football here.”

https://twitter.com/sr_collings/status/918399764399579136

The response was met with laughs and it seems like Wenger was just having a light-hearted joke, but if Merson takes it the wrong way it could further fuel the fire between him and the Gunners at the moment.

The former Arsenal player has taken nearly every opportunity recently to have a go at his old club and manager, whether it be for failing to sign Agüero over the summer, or his opinion that Arsène Wenger doesn’t have the tactical nous of Harry Redknapp.

He even claimed that Monreal wouldn’t make it into the bottom-half teams last month, before the Spaniard went on to be one of the Arsenal’s star players for the next few weeks.

The Spaniard helped the Gunners to clean sheet after clean sheet, scored against Brighton and pulled off a dramatic goal-line clearance against West Brom. So even if it was probably a joke, Wenger does have a few reasons to have a go at Merson at the moment.