Wenger rules out buying Juan Mata

Eyebrows rose and fell like a Mexican wave among those watching Arsene Wenger declare – 24 hours after conceding the ­opposite – that he was not expecting either Cesc Fabregas or Samir Nasri to leave Arsenal. 

A negotiating position it may have been, but it added to the growing feeling that the Gunners' manager had become football’s answer to King Canute – a man desperately trying to stop the inevitable.
It also fuelled the growing feeling that the Frenchman is cracking under the combined pressure of trying to hold on to his stars, keeping disgruntled fans on side and maintaining the players’ belief in his vision.

Nonetheless, he decreed he would not allow his side to use the club’s chaotic summer as an excuse for failing to impress against Newcastle in their season opener.
“It does not stop any of our players from making a good pass once you are on the pitch," said Wenger.
“When you are on the pitch, you play to win. I have seen much more difficult ­circumstances – people who lost their parents and are playing the next day and being the best man on the pitch.
"You cannot say you are a top player and yet be disturbed because there is a transfer market happening. It’s a joke.”
Many Arsenal fans do not share the ‘joke’, with many of the issues facing the club at the end of last season still unresolved with the Premier League about to return.
Despite the world and his wife being well aware that Fabregas has no intention of staying, Wenger admitted he has not yet considered who would be Arsenal's new captain.
And despite the demand for a highly-rated, experienced replacement for the Spaniard, Wenger ruled out the signing of Valencia winger Juan Mata.
He said: “We will not do [a deal for] Juan Mata. I don’t have to give a reason, we will not do it.”
Although fans are clamouring for a new centre-half, Wenger hinted the closest they may get is the return to fitness of Thomas Vermaelen.
“We will have a new centre-back by the end of the transfer window - because Vermaelen only played five games last year," he said.
“To buy just for the sake of buying, you won’t find me there. If I’m convinced the player has the ­qualities, I will always do it if he’s better than the players we have.
“We have specialised people to work everywhere. Everybody looks for centre-backs in the whole world. People with unlimited resources look for a centre-back.
"We are not in a supermarket where you go to a shelf and you ask 'Where are the centre-backs or the strikers?'”
Supporters waiting for more experience to be added elsewhere in the side are unlikely to be pleased.
“We have two markets: one is internal and one is external,” said Wenger. “Internal is the young players that we have - players who are inside the club are very important.
“Externally, if I’m convinced a player brings some extra qualities to the squad, we will always buy him - maybe even overpay a little bit.
“But to pay three or four times the price, you must really be convinced that this is the player you need.
"At the moment, we have not found that player.”