Wenger joins
fight for Gareth Barry
Arsenal are preparing to enter the race to sign Gareth Barry and
are also considering a bid for £12 million rated Roma midfielder
Alberto Aquilani. Arsene Wenger has drawn up a shortlist of players
he wants to add to his squad this summer and his priority is
beefing up a midfield that has lost Frenchmen Mathieu Flamini and
Lassana Diarra since the turn of the year.
Wenger is searching for a central midfield anchorman to
play alongside Cesc Fabregas, who has told the Arsenal manager that
he will not be seduced by Real Madrid or Barcelona into a return to
Spain this summer.
The Arsenal manager is weighing up bids for Aston
Villa's Barry, who has been a mainstay of the England squad this
season since moving to a more central, holding midfield role under
Martin O'Neill, and 23-year-old Aquilani, who has won four Italy
caps and is also attracting interest from Manchester United.
Wenger faces strong competition for Barry from
Liverpool, who made a players-plus-cash offer of around £10 million
for the England midfielder last week, and Chelsea. O'Neill and
Barry will hold talks early next week to discuss the player's
future and, while the Villa manager has been publicly bullish about
the prospect of holding on to the 27-year-old, privately he accepts
that Barry will move on to a club in the summer who can offer him
Champions League football and the prospect of a significant hike on
his £42,000-a-week salary.
Wenger was disappointed to lose Diarra to Portsmouth in
January and Flamini to AC Milan this week and has accepted that he
might have to spend the bulk of his £30 million summer budget on
replacements for the pair, even though veteran Brazilian Gilberto
is considering a U-turn and staying at the Emirates Stadium.
Such is Wenger's desire to strengthen his squad that
even if he was able to steal Barry from under Liverpool's noses, he
would still pursue a move for Aquilani, who impressed the Frenchman
during Roma's last-16 Champions League defeat to United in
March.
Wenger is also planning on buying a left-back to
understudy Gael Clichy and a left-winger to provide competition for
the injury-prone Tomas Rosicky. One player who the Arsenal manager
is desperate to hang on to is Alexander Hleb, who has been linked
with a move to Inter Milan.
"We want to keep Hleb, we want him to be part of our
team next year," said Wenger. "It is as simple as that. We have
lost one player [Flamini], we do not want to lose more." Wenger
again refused to confirm who would captain the team next
season.
William Gallas came in for criticism when he broke down
in the centre-circle following the last-gasp draw at Birmingham"I
don't share the view that Gallas is a bad captain. He is a captain
who is very committed and tries to work hard for the team," said
Wenger.
"He had an outburst at Birmingham, but I still believe
today that, even if that was a mistake, that was not why we did not
win the championship. "That would be too easy as an excuse because
there are other incidents. That would be a cheap excuse. "At the
time of the Birmingham game we were five points in front and
everybody had been praising his captaincy. "I believe we all make
mistakes and we had to come back as a unit and try to win the
championship."
However, Wenger would not commit on just who would wear
the armband come August. "It the captaincy issue has been raised by
a lot of newspapers, but I must say I have not looked at the
situation yet," he said.
