Press conference

Emery on Ramsey, Suarez, Banega: read every word

With the January transfer window in full swing, transfers dominated Unai Emery's press conference at London Colney on Thursday.

Our head coach discussed Aaron Ramsey's situation, and was also asked about potential transfer targets such as Ever Banega and Denis Suarez.

Read on for a full transcript:

on Aaron Ramsey’s future…

Good afternoon. It’s an individual situation rather than the team. My idea and focus, I say to him every day, is that we need his performance for us. In the last match I was very happy with him. I asked in the last match at Blackpool if he is okay to help us play and he said, 'Yeah, coach, I want to play" and he played with a very big behaviour and commitment to us. After, his future belongs to him, his family and agent. Every day he’s here with us, he’s working very well. I want his behaviour and his focus to be on West Ham on Saturday.

on his decision…

I respect his decision a lot.

on his situation…

I cannot say more about his situation. The most important thing is that Aaron Ramsey is with us. His future I respect a lot because he has a very private decision but he is with us every day, and I repeat that I am very happy with him.

on who may come in…

We cannot sign permanently. We can only loan players. Only loan players.

on Denis Suarez…

I don’t know his situation now. We can only sign players later on. I know the club is working on possibilities of which players can help us with big performances like we need now.

on other players being linked like Ever Banega…

I know this player and he’s a very good player.

on Ever Banega…

I cannot tell you more.

on how much of an input he has…

I can say to you that the club is working, the club is telling me the different situations in each moment. At the moment, we haven’t had any news today about that.

on team news…

This week they are working with us with quality, Mustafi, Monreal and Bellerin. Tomorrow we need to do the last training before the West Ham game. This training session is important [to work out who can play]. Mesut Ozil is also training with us. We’ve got the same injuries with Welbeck and Holding. Mkhitaryan has been training with us and Mavropanos for the past 10 days, who can help us in the next matches and start playing with the under-23s. At the moment we are better than we were a week ago.

on West Ham under Pellegrini…

He’s a very good coach, with a lot of experience and here he’s won the Premier League with Manchester City. I know he needs time to create his idea with the team. I think they are improving and they also have good individual players with quality, like Anderson, like Arnautovic - who are very good players. They are playing at home with their supporters and that’s difficult for us. Each away match is a very big challenge for us to find consistency and progression with our way. Saturday is a new challenge. We are very [convinced] to play and to give big work in finding our victory.

on the relationship with Pellegrini…

We’ve played a lot of matches in Spain and then in the Champions League with Man City and Sevilla. He was the coach at Villarreal and Real Madrid when I was at Valencia. We know each other very well. I think it will be a difficult game for us and the most important thing for us is that the starting XI and the squad are concentrated on this match. What’s most important is the quality of the players on the pitch imposing our ideas against them.

on how tempting it is to make lots of changes with players returning to fitness…

We want to find our best performance with the players. Some players can recover their positions in the squad and in the first XI, and some of them we need their performances now. Above all, we are going to have one mix of the players that have been playing and helping us with good performances and adapt against West Ham, imposing our idea on the pitch. That’s the mix [we need] for Saturday. It’s good news that we can have more players available.

on how difficult it is for Ramsey to give his best over next few months…

My last conversation with him is very important. We both spoke about the situation with respect from him and from us. His response has been a very good response in training and matches with good performances. I said to you before that I want to see Aaron Ramsey with this focus and these performances when he’s playing. This week for example, he’s been the same. He’s working and training very well with good experience. When I look at every player and they’re training like Aaron is this week, I feel calm ahead of the next match because the players are all focused.

on what makes a Pellegrini team…

Usually they are very offensive teams. They usually play matches with a balance tactically but above all with technical, offensive players. I know that Saturday will be a difficult match because we need to impose our ideas but also for 90 minutes, we need to control their players and their tactical ideas. The respect for us to them is very, very big.

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