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Arsene Wenger 'shortlists striker' as Arsenal board prepares to spend

Arsene Wenger keeps a close eye on his Arsenal players during a training session at London Colney. (Pic: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty)
Image: Arsene Wenger has targeted a potential new striker for Arsenal, a director claims

Arsene Wenger has the cash to buy anyone bar Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo and has identified a striker, an Arsenal director claims.

Wenger has consistently said this summer he is only interested in bringing world-class players to the Emirates, and his sole senior signing has been goalkeeper Petr Cech.

But Arsenal director Lord Harris says a new striker has been lined up - and is keen to make the move.

Dortmund's Gabonese striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang reacts during the Bundesliga match Borussia Dortmund and Cologne.
Image: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will not be leaving Borussia Dortmund, according to the German club

"We get a list of the players that Wenger wants," he told the Daily Mail. "On the list is a centre forward, but I'm not going to tell you who he is.

"You've got to get the other team to want to sell him, but I think he wants to come. It basically comes down to whether the other team can find a superstar to replace him, because they don't have to sell."

Several English newspapers have linked Arsenal with Real Madrid's Karim Benzema and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of Borussia Dortmund, but the Germans say Aubameyang will not be sold while Benzema's agent says he is certain to stay at the Bernabeu.

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Money will not be an issue unless the mystery man in question is one of the world's top two players, according to Harris, who says Arsenal's board is ready to sanction a deal in excess of the £42.5m paid out for Mesut Ozil in 2013.

He said: "Money was tight when we moved to the Emirates but it's a lot freer now. In the accounts, there's over £200m in the bank. You could say to Arsene we've got no money and he wouldn't worry, or you could give him £100m and he might not spend it.

"We would back him to break the club's transfer record. If he wanted the man, he could have him. Apart from Messi and Ronaldo, he could have any player."

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Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has dismissed reports that the club are close to signing Karim Benzema from Real Madrid.

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