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Arsene Wenger accuses full-back Mathieu Debuchy of lying

By Daniel Lewis, Senior Reporter | 30 December 2016

Mathieu Debuchy's claims that Arsenal blocked his exit from the club earlier this year are "completely untrue", according to boss Arsene Wenger.

Arsene Wenger has insisted that Arsenal did not receive any offers for Mathieu Debuchy in the summer after the wantaway defender claimed that his hopes of leaving the club had been blocked.

The 31-year-old said in an interview in his French homeland this week that he was desperate to leave the Emirates Stadium in the New Year, having been restricted to just 16 minutes of top-flight action.

Debuchy's comments did not go down well with Wenger, however, who dismissed the out-of-favour right-back's claims that teams in Italy and Spain had shown an interest in him as being "completely untrue".

"Nobody came in for him in the summer; there are some things are not true in this article," he told reporters. "We never blocked him from going to Fiorentina or Espanyol. They had no interest in him at all, we checked that.

"You have to take that article with a little distance. It is a little bit of a frustrated article from a player who is injured."

Debuchy spent time on loan at Bordeaux last season, but he also suggested that Arsenal rejected the chance for him to make a temporary switch to Manchester United midway through the 2015-16 campaign.

"They never made an offer from him," Wenger added. "That is completely untrue. It is sometimes surprising to hear things like that."

Debuchy, whose only action so far this term came in a 3-1 win over Bournemouth in November, featured seven times for the Gunners in all competitions before departing for Bordeaux earlier this year.