by ‘Ifreke Inyang

Arsene Wenger has admitted that his new signings, Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud, who missed all the pre-season games, will not be ready for the start of the new English season.

“Podolski and Giroud may take longer than expected,” Wenger said in the Daily Mail. “I cannot play them in pre-season, so I will ease them in the Premier League.”

The Frenchman also confirmed that he will be without Tomas Rosicky, who is recovering from surgery on his Archilles and Bacary Sagna, who missed the final games of last season.

“Sagna will be short for the start of the season and Rosicky will not be back until September, in my opinion. Rosicky did fantastically well for us at the end of the season, so it is a big blow. The injury he has comes from the European Championship,” he said.

According to the Arsenal manager, Nicklas Bendtner, Sebastien Squillaci and Park Chu-Young are close to sealing moves away from the Emirates.

He said: “Bendtner, Squillaci and Park will be on their way to go somewhere.”

In Andrei Arshavin’s case, Wenger said his future is yet to be decided.

“Arshavin, it depends. We have to sit together and talks. He could still have a future at the club.”