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LONDON. — Arsene Wenger says Lord Harris went “a bit overboard” in claiming only two players are now outside Arsenal’s price range.

The Arsenal director told yesterday’s Daily Mail newspaper the funds are in place to bring in anyone bar Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, adding there was “£200m in the bank”.

Wenger laughed off Harris’ comments at his pre-Emirates Cup press conference, but did not deny outright the board member’s other claim that Arsenal are chasing a new striker.

Asked whether the comments were helpful he said: “Helpful or not, it doesn’t matter. He has gone a bit overboard because that’s not true.

“We are in a situation — I explained many times — where we are working hard if an opportunity comes up to do something, but we are not in the need.

“Last week I had to answer ‘what will you do if all the players are available?’ This week ‘why don’t you buy?’

“Last week (in Singapore) we scored goals and we did not have Alexis Sanchez and Danny Welbeck, who are coming back now. We’re in a position where we have a strong squad, but if an opportunity turns up we’ll still do something.”

Karim Benzema is among the high-profile strikers widely linked with Arsenal this summer, but the Real Madrid man’s agent said this week he will “1 000 percent” stay at the Bernabeu.

Wenger said: “One thousand percent is a lot! That looks quite convincing.”

Asked about other possible targets, he said: “I do not come out with names anyway. I believe we built something special last season.

We want to work on that and not expect too much from outside.

“I don’t want to promise you too much. We are open minded everywhere.

“We work very hard to find the players we can. We spent a lot of money in the last two season and bought Gabriel in the middle of the season to be ready for this season.

“We are not reluctant to spend the money. Now we have the money, if we can find the players we will spend the money.”

Wenger insists Roma-bound Wojciech Szczesny still has a future at Arsenal. — AFP.