Arsène Wenger has confirmed that Arsenal are not finished in the transfer market as there are still a few players to bring in this summer.

Speaking in Beijing ahead of the second leg of Arsenal’s pre-season tour of Asia, Wenger started with a joke about not wanting to talk about transfers, but then went on to mention Santi Cazorla and assess Abou Diaby and Jack Wilshere as if they are new signings.

Looking at Diaby and Wilshere as new signings is very interesting. Obviously they are not technically new signings (Wilshere came through the club’s academy and Diaby joined us in 2006), but arguably we do now have two players who were not available in the squad last season. Diaby made 5 substitute appearances in 2011/12, adding up to a 100 minutes. Wilshere, as we all know, has not featured for over a year.

“You see I have come here to say as little as possible!

“I am ready to talk a lot, but not a lot about transfers, because it is a very fragile subject and a very secret subject.

“But I share the opinion of Mikel Arteta - he [Santi Cazorla] is a great player.

“We bought Giroud and Podolski and I hope that we bought Diaby and Wilshere too, who didn’t play at all last season. We will add Wilshere to the squad as soon as possible. But we are not at the end of it [the transfer window] – we will still bring players in.”

What I find particularly strange is that Wenger has gone from not having never heard of Cazorla, to distancing himself from the signing and joking that we will sign a Malaysian player, and now stating that the Spaniard is a great player, all within the space of a few days. Something is clearly up and the club are not doing a very good job of keeping it a secret. Wenger wouldn’t spend a reported £13-15 million on a player he has never heard of. You can see our full analysis of the Cazorla to Arsenal story here. 

Wenger was then asked about the future of Robin van Persie. Le Boss is no doubt asked the same question every day, and his response was noncommittal.

“There is nothing to elaborate. The options are clear – we want to keep our players. I would be happy for him to stay in the English Premier League – at Arsenal.”