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I wasn’t trying to sign him at Man City because we have enough players in this position. I am happy that Thiago comes to England because you’ll enjoy a really good player

I think in every case you have to try to take it individually. First of all, try to understand the reason - if that's the case - when they want to leave and why. If there are things that you can help them to change, to give them more, you have to try to maximise those options and when it comes to a point where it's obviously something that you cannot control and cannot help and it's evident and clear, then you open the door. But then it goes down to the club to decide when and how and that's a player with a contract that has to get the right value and go to the right club.

We are trying all the time to adjust the squad in the most efficient way. It is clear at the moment that it has to go both ways and in order to achieve that we still have some time but we are pretty clear in what we are trying to do. 
 

Ceballos in my opinion is average. I think he’s too weak for the Premier League and I think he’ll get found out this year.

I think they need a little bit more guile in there. You need a player in there like Mesut Ozil in that middle of the pitch.

When teams are scared of the pace of Saka and Aubameyang and Lacazette and they want to defend deep where’s the guile where’s the player who is going to open the teams up. Ozil is the man to do that.

If you could have got Mesut Ozil onside in this particular team with the way the manager thinks and the intensity that we now have, he is literally the perfect player. But it doesn't seem like that is going to happen. It doesn't seem like there is any way back for Ozil. I was in the ground the other day and he was walking around, he looked happy enough.

The confusing thing for me is that everybody knows that if you do buy into Arteta's gameplan, then you're probably going to get in there.

I just find it really sad that nobody is able to convince him or make him understand that, even if you are going to leave. At the end of the day, he's still paid to be a footballer for the club.

If it's attitude isn't right in training or whatever, we've seen that Arteta will play them if they do show that, so I find it devastating that we can't find someone to get him to understand how integral he could be to this style at Arsenal.

He’s ready to play, whether he’s our automatic No 1 depends on what he does in training and matches. He played against us a couple of weeks ago and he played in the Community Shield, so he’s probably had more games than our goalkeepers. In terms of readiness, he’s 100%.