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Wenger On Links With Costa, Draxler + Mandzukic But Rules Out Suarez

By on February 6, 2014

Arsene Wenger refused to rule out making moves for the likes of Diego Costa, Julian Draxler, Edin Dzeko and Mario Mandzukic today but insists he has no plans to go back in for Luis Suarez.

Reports in this mornings newspapers suggested that the boss was gearing up for a huge summer of spending with the Frenchman apparently looking to bring in three world class players.

According to the Daily Mail, Wenger wants a new right back and central midfielder as well as a striker and his hitlist consists of names such as Atletico Madrid’s Diego Costa, Schalke’s Julian Draxler, Man City’s Edin Dzeko and Bayern Munich’s Mario Mandzukic.

Speaking at his pre-match press conference on Thursday, Wenger was quizzed on his interest in the quartet and while he insisted his focus is on the upcoming Liverpool clash, he called them all ‘big players’ and refused to rule out making an approach for any of them this summer.

“My focus is on Liverpool, and not so much on the transfer market.

“All the players you name are big players.

“But my eye is not on the transfer market at the moment.” [source: Daily Star]

Any of the four names put to the boss would be excellent signings and a new striker is obviously needed this summer. We failed to bring one in during the summer or winter windows, so next season we certainly need to have support for Olivier Giroud.

One striker who we were strongly linked with over the summer was Liverpool’s Luis Suarez and we failed to land the 27-year-old following a failed £40,000,001 million offer.

With the Uruguayan showing sensational form this season, journalists asked Wenger if he had any regrets over his failed pursuit, to which he replied:

“No [I have no regrets], you sometimes have regrets when a player played for you, and scores goals or does well somewhere else.”

“He was never our player, it is just a situation that did not come off and that is it.”

Arsene was then asked if has any plans to go back in for Suarez at the end of the season, and he replied.

“No, no. I don’t, no.” [source: Daily Star]

It seems he’s either playing his cards close to his chest or he’s given up trying to sign the player, but I think it’s safe to say our chances of signing Suarez ended in the summer. He’s signed a new contract with a REAL buy-out clause, which is reportedly set at nearer £70m, and there’s no chance we’ll pay that.

So hopefully we’ll be able to land one of Costa, Dzeko, Mandzukic or Draxler. Personally I’d love us to sign Costa but with a £32m buy-out clause and his banging the goals in this season, I think we’ll be up against practically every top side in Europe, so the competition is going to be fierce.

Which striker would you like us to sign this summer?

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