Arsenal Football Club has disowned a Q&A interview with manager Arsène Wenger published in a local newspaper on Thursday.

A disclaimer posted on arsenal.com, the club’s official website, said Wenger “did not grant a one-on-one interview to the newspaper”. In the terse statement, the club dismissed the report and asked media houses “not to attribute any quotes” from it to the manager.

“Arsenal Football Club would like to clarify that quotes attributed to Arsène Wenger today (Thursday) in a Kenyan newspaper are not correct,” said the club.

The “interview” published on Thursday was said to have been conducted by “sports commentator” Ampher Apidi in South Africa.

In the said conversation, Wenger was quoted as saying he would be glad to come to Kenya on holiday with his family. The Arsenal manager is also claimed to have praised South Africa for holding what is turning out as a successful World Cup.

The manager was also reported to have “sent condolences” to family and friends of an Arsenal fan who committed suicide some time last year after the English giants were knocked out of the Champions League by bitter rivals Manchester United.

According to the disputed interview, Wenger allegedly said Kenya was known for its achievements in athletics and the signing of McDonald Mariga by Champions League winners Inter Milan.

Fabregas won’t leave The paper further reported that Wenger expressed discomfort by England manager Fabio Capello’s decision to leave Arsenal winger Theo Walcott out of his squad to South Africa.

The manager, according to the report, declared that Spanish midfielder and Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas, who has been linked to Barcelona, won’t be leaving the Emirates.

It was reported that Wenger, who has been in South Africa since the start of the World Cup, was impressed by the performance of Germany stars Mesut Ozil, Sami Khedira as well as Xavi Alonso of Spain.

Commenting on Ghana’s defeat, according to the “interview”, Wenger allegedly said that striker Asamoah Gyan needed to be calm and a little patient.

CAROL MUTHONDU