Friday, 26 August 2016

Arsène Wenger denies panic buying on Shkodran Mustafi and Lucas Pérez

• Arsenal spend £52m on Valencia defender and Deportivo striker
• Arsène Wenger: ‘Clubs will spend more than £1bn in this window’

Arsène Wenger has confirmed Arsenal are close to completing the signings of Lucas Pérez and Shkodran Mustafi for around £52m but denied suggestions he is panic buying and warned that football fans will be “amazed” at the amount of money spent by Premier League clubs before the transfer window closes on Wednesday.

Pérez, from Deportivo La Coruña, and the Germany defender Mustafi, of Valencia, were due to have medicals on Friday with fees of £17.1m and £35m respectively agreed with the two La Liga clubs but the Arsenal manager believes the late nature of the deals and the sizeable price is a natural consequence of the Premier League’s new £5bn three-year TV deal. “Look at my face. Is this the face of someone who tends to panic buy?” Wenger said, smiling.

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