I Cannot Tell The Press More About Aubameyang – Arsene Wenger

Arsene Wenger has insisted Olivier Giroud has not been offered to Borussia Dortmund as part of a deal for striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and says Arsenal are still “far from being close” to signing the Gabon forward.

Wenger refused to be drawn on the prospects of signing Aubameyang, but answered with a flat “no” if Giroud had been offered as part of the deal.

“I cannot tell you more, we have nothing to announce today and at the moment we stay where we are,” he told a news conference. “We keep our players. We have added [Henrikh] Mkhitaryan, we have lost Alexis Sanchez, so our squad is stable.

“And will anything else happen? At the moment I would say I don’t know. It’s still possible, but we’re far from being close.”

“I want Olivier to stay. If nobody comes in, nobody goes out at the moment,” Wenger added. “Maybe one or two young players out on loan somewhere. But the experienced side of the squad will remain the same unless somebody comes in.

“We lost Theo [Walcott, to Everton], and to lose Theo and Olivier without getting anybody for us would be too many top-class players to leave the club.”

“Our intention is as well to keep Ozil at the club, and hopefully we will manage to do that very soon,” Wenger said. “[We’re] not close enough to be optimistic, and not far enough to be pessimistic.

“The vibes I get from his commitment, from his focus, from his desire for achievement with the team, he behaves like somebody who is completely focused and committed and ready to commit. After that, contract negotiations are what they are. Here we are not close enough to tell you, ‘yes we will do it.'”