“We would like two or three players more,” he said, “but we will not compromise on the quality of those players."
Arsenal begin their campaign at home to Aston Villa on Saturday, and although the club’s internationals have all returned unscathed from midweek friendly duty, injuries to Thomas Vermaelen, Mikel Arteta and Nacho Monreal have underlined the need for reinforcements.
But Wenger insisted that there would be no repeat of the last-minute panic-buying seen in August 2011, when Arsenal signed Arteta, Per Mertesacker, Park Chu-Young and Andre Santos in the final 48 hours of the window for a combined cost of around £25 million.
“The situation is completely different,” Wenger said. “A couple of seasons ago we lost two or three players in one day, and we had no other option than to buy.”
This time, Wenger said, quality must outweigh quantity. But true quality, the sort that Wenger feels would genuinely improve his squad, appears to be thin on the ground. And in a direct plea to fans, he said he understood their frustrations but called for calm.
