Arsene Wenger spoke to the press today ahead of the Community Shield clash with Man City at Wembley on Sunday. But predictably, the manager was asked about the Arsenal transfer rumours doing the rounds at the moment and Wenger had bad news for any Arsenal fans that were still hoping that Sami Khedira would be joining his World Cup team mates Mertesacker, Podolski and Ozil at the Emirates.

The Frenchman was reported by Arsenal.com as saying, “We were never close to signing him because Jack Wilshere has come back fit and in midfield we have quite a few offensive box-to-box players.”

But that does not necessarily mean that Arsenal will not sign a defensive midfielder, because that is clearly not how Wenger sees Khedira. There are still players like William Carvalho, Morgan Schneiderlin and Lars Bender that the Gunners have been linked with, and all three are more typical defensively minded players.

The boss did say that he was still looking to strengthen the squad, and adding steel to the spine must surely be one of the things on his mind. But there is also a feeling that young Calum Chambers from Southampton may be set for that role, despite being better known as a right back and having played his first two games for Arsenal in the centre of defence.

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