Arsene Wenger admits he needs "one more body" in his Arsenal midfield - but refused to be drawn on whether that would be Gareth Barry.
The Gunners fielded a youthful side for the first match of their pre-season training camp in Austria against Hungarian side Szombathelyi Haladas on Tuesday, which finished 1-1 and saw Mexican teenager Carlos Vela make his debut.
Wenger has seen his options in the middle of the park depleted following the departures of Mathieu Flamini, veteran Brazilian Gilberto and winger Alexander Hleb.
While youngsters Aaron Ramsey and Samir Nasri have arrived, Wenger is looking to add an experienced head before the transfer window closes next month.
However, the Arsenal manager would not go into specific targets, with wantaway Barry - booed by Aston Villa fans in their friendly at Walsall - rated around £18million which could prove too high a price tag for the Gunners.
"We will need one more body in there," Wenger told Arsenal TV Online.
"At the moment we do not have Alex Song who is going to the Olympic games, Abou Diaby was not here [against Szombathelyi] and nor was [Cesc] Fabregas.
"If we find a reasonable target then we will do it - but there is no special name on the list.
"We have some time. We have until August 31."
Arsenal will play a Burgenland XI in Ritzing, Austria on Monday night before meeting Stuttgart on July 30 - a match which could see veteran German goalkeeper Jens Lehmann face his old club.
Wenger is happy enough with the squad's preparations so far for the new season, which will begin with a Champions League qualifier on August 12/13.
"We integrated three games into our training camp and this was the first," he said.
"Of course the international players were not here, but it was a good test."
Wenger also insisted it was business as usual concerning Togo striker Emmanuel Adebayor, who has so far sent out mixed messages over his future amid suggestions of a lucrative move away from Emirates Stadium.
"I speak to everybody. We don't make a case of anybody especially," Wenger maintained.
"We prepare as a team and we focus on preparing well. Adebayor is like everybody else."
The Arsenal manager added: "The day we sell someone we will inform you like we always did.
"As for the rest we will not go into individual happenings on the football market. Otherwise we would never finish."
Arsenal may, meanwhile, have cause for concern over the fitness of defender Kolo Toure, who is understood to have contracted a mild strain of malaria while on a holiday to his native Ivory Coast.
Wenger, meanwhile, revealed he expected Croatia striker Eduardo da Silva to make a successful return following his rehabilitation from a broken leg.
The 25-year-old is making good progress having spent time back in his native Brazil, and is on target to meet his nine-month recovery schedule.
Eduardo is set to return to England and watch his team-mates in the Emirates Cup on August 2, after which he will be assessed by the Arsenal medical team.
"We hoped he would be back earlier, but it is very difficult to say," Wenger said.
"It will be three or four weeks more [until he comes back to England], but I don't really know yet."
More news from SportingLife.com
Comment 1 - 14 of 14
i hope his trust in the "young guns" LIVES UP 4 the sake of the club. lets face it only barry and bischoff have a chance of coming in.....but with wenger...anything is possible....IN WENGER WE TRUST
If Wenger dont get his finger out soon all the best players will have gone to other clubs. Eduardo will take a long time to get back to where he was before that assault on him, I dont reckon he will be the same person myself.
i would like to say when you here pundits talking about arsenal non-british player or the fact there are only a few in the time , the have not seen the player coming up though the ranks who have played barnet ,you try and buy a british player and other teams [big 4] would send abroard than sell to an english club then the people say not enough home grown talent ,its because there not good enogh unfortunetly .
Get Diego Wenger! from Werder Bremen! thats ur midfielder right there
eduardo will be key substitute or not he literally opens up our striking abilities thank good he's coming back soon
Can I also add....Wenger let Lupoli go for free, let Bentley go for a tiny price and has also let Flamini go for nothing. Sometimes, Wenger makes serious mistakes in the transfer market aswel as successes!!!
Wenger hinted at partnering Van Persie with fellow country man Huntelaar earlier this month. He has also hinted several times at Blackburns Gamst-Pederson, and since added Barry to his frequent rants on new signings. But, lets face it, none are French, and none of them are bargains. Wenger keeps a weathered eye on Euro turfs for young, cheap and encouraging signings, but right now nearly all the top young talent is signed up and signed up to big named clubs. I know for a fact that, Roma, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Lyon and Manchester Utd have great talent in their youth team that may never ever play for the first team. But, would any of them release a player to Arsenal for a good value price? NO WAY!!!!
So Wenger, stay clear of "Barry" he;s not worth 18million, look closer at some of Roma's "desperate to get away" young midfielders, and snap up a good strong left back as cover. Add depth, add a striker, add a goalkeeper worth his salt and pitch Adebayor out the door as quick as possible.....
It is obvious that we(arsenal)could not come out with the prmiership title and the championsleague title due to some errors made by the players but i still appreciate your works last season.some errors we made are:we do not have alternative defenders that could also perform well like the mostly used defenders(Toure,Gallas,Clichy and Sagna),we shold also get a good midfielder which can also play well like Fabregas,and we also need good and strong striking force.Adebayor has being our no.1 striker last season but he did not give us positive result when needed.Lastly we should enough substitues to replace our main players in some mathches because they got too tired towards the end of last season which did not make us do well.I will be wholeheartedly happy if our boss Arsene Wenger can make amendment to this errors.I love the Gunners
Please tell Arsene Wenger to fortify the defence. Now Kolo Toure is down, Gallas is speculatively out, who will man the back. This season the other big three clubs are no go areas. We need strong defence, midfield and attack in order to challenge for anything amongst the other three. Please Wenger, fortify our defence, add one strong holding midfielder. Leave attack alone.
arsenal need new defenders..seriously..
All what I can say is We Arsenal has to revise His police on wage, frontline playing style. Now We know trhat the Younger are trouble make r unless they Play. But they have to choose for the club or for themselves or for both the club and them selves.
Let them share the game- FA Cup, Champoinship, Champoin League, Communityshield.
Look to offensive to play all for One player.
LoveArse all with soul flesh,bone and blood.
David Silva and Gareth Barry............ thats all we need, maybe Villa as well but i'm just being greedy now !!!!!!
wenger is a master at bringin in young unkown talent but this season i think we will struggle, four players av left helb, flamani, lehman and the good old giberto (sory 4 spellin th names wrong) that is a big slice of the team gone i know narsi, the welsh youngest and our mexican is back tht leaves it minus one player, i said at the end of las season we need atleast 4 good players mayb 5 to come into arsenal so we'd have depth in our squad and last th season wenger doesnt need to sign one more play he needs to sign atleast anther FIVE really hope we finish thrid or there abouts and win eitha th fac or carling cup we need something plllllleeeeeaaaaaaaasssssseeeeeeeee wenger sign mor players it hurts me wen we cant last th whole season come on gunners COME ON GUNNERS
i know that wenger is a good manager but i think arsenal need more depth in the defence and forward department rather than the midfield..
Please login to post a comment
Not already a Yahoo! user ? Sign up to get a free Yahoo! Account