So a friend of mine in Singapore (Arsenal fan who posts regularly on other Arsenal forums) has become an actual ITK. Few hours ago he sat at the next table to Wenger, Bould, Lewin, Primorac and Gazidis at their hotel pretending to be working on his laptop while listening in to try and get a scoop.
Few tidbits he managed to catch:
They talked very very little about transfers at all. They spent the entire 45 minutes talking about what happened over the past 3 days and analyzing every player's performance in training and also the match. I will try to summarise the important bits or any other that I can remember. It was quite difficult sometimes to understand because they used personal names for the players.
-Bould was impressed with Iwobi, which Primorac disagreed. Boro thinks Iwobi is not suited to playing on the wings and his one footedness makes him very predictable to defend against. Wenger added that Iwobi is better centrally but can be effective on the wings when you analysed his movement using their data prediction and stats analysis.
-Lewin mentioned Wilshere complained about discomfort after the match but on further checks was okay
-Lewin said Zelalem is struggling with fitness and can't last a match for 90 minutes yet.
-Bould said Gabriel is ready for the first team and Wenger agreed with that. "Very impressive in his anticipation". Primorac added that he clocked good times for the sprint training earlier. -Wenger said Toral and Crowley might need to find a loan deal this summer. Gazidis: "Yep, will do."
-Can't remember who said Willock has no future here for now.
-They talked about Coquelin's performance and training progress for a great deal. But basically they agreed he is the first choice for midfield. Found it interesting that Gazidis mentioned "I will tell them to hold on for now."
-Giroud fitness not up to standards yet according to data. Primorac advised Wenger to not give him the full match for Saturday.
-Wenger asked Gazidis about this guy called "Alex". Gazidis said "Yep, he's still in Berlin. It's will continue. Do we still go on the second one?" "As long as it has met the requirements we have previously agreed on." "They are not easy." "We have time."
-Boro said Vic told him the first training kits has been sent back to London first, along with the other items that is needed for next weekend."
-Gazidis then talked about some marketing and commercial stuffs which is pretty boring.
-Wenger then mentioned that some players need more close monitoring and is going out of schedule. Boro replied "I will tell Lawrence to settle this. He knows about it already." The rest is all about flight schedule, timings, itinerary, fitness, logistics and upcoming programmes which Wenger kept emphasizing to Boro to ask Olivier to inform the players.
Nothing major other than possibly Alex in Berlin. A scout or some club official negotiating a transfer perhaps? Take with a pinch of salt if you will but I can vouch for this guy. He's been to all the events so far (training, away kit launch etc). Also sounds like they are settled on Coq to remain as first choice.