Manuel Almunia will decide his Arsenal future, says Wenger

Competition: Manuel Almunia has not played since the defeat against West Brom on September 25
11 April 2012

Arsene Wenger today insisted Manuel Almunia will decide his own Arsenal future amid rumours the Spaniard could leave the club next month.

The 33-year-old's last appearance came in the 3-2 home defeat to West Brom in September and yesterday he suffered a new ankle injury that will sideline him for a further three weeks.

Lukasz Fabianski has since established himself as the Gunners' new No1 while Wojciech Szczesny impressed in his two appearances this season and has been rewarded with a new fiveyear contract.

Almunia's future consequently looks bleak at the club he joined in July 2004 with Malaga and Atletico Madrid prepared to meet Arsenal's £1.5million valuation to offer him a way out.

But Wenger insists he will only consider offers if Almunia (left) decides he is no longer prepared to fight for a first-team spot at Emirates Stadium.

"I will listen to Almunia only - we want three goalkeepers at top level and you have seen on Monday night against Manchester United we had Szczesny who made his debut in the Premier League and we had Fabianski on the bench," said Wenger.

"If something happens to one you need three world-class goalkeepers. I do not have to talk to players about their future if they have longterm contracts. Competition is part of our job. I am always surprised that you are surprised that our job is to compete for our positions.

"We are in a fantastic job but the core of our job is to fight to be competitive and to fight for your place. Nobody can be where we are in such a privileged job and think it's a shame we have to compete for our places. It's the least we can do.

"I am surprised that every time a player has to fight for his position you think straight away he has to leave. I remind you that it's not because you have a difficult period in your career inside the club that necessarily you leave the club. It's part of the job. That's my answer."

Arsenal can return to the top of the Premier League with victory over Stoke tomorrow before Chelsea and Manchester United meet 24 hours later and Wenger believes his side will bounce back from defeat against United earlier this week.

"We were on a good run before Manchester United, where we lost 1-0, and it was difficult to swallow, but we have to accept it," said the manager.

"What is positive, if you look overall at our situation, is that we are still in a strong position because we still have to play Chelsea, Man United and Man City at home as well as Liverpool. More than ever, we will still have our say in this League."

Wenger added that centre-half Thomas Vermaelen, who has not played for Arsenal since August because of an Achilles injury, could return to action next month.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in