Arsenal Football Club News

• Nickname:Gunners
• Founded:1886
• Manager:Arsene Wenger

• Ground:Emirates
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Wenger backs Baptista

09 Sep 2006 - 10:23:56

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Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is confident that new signing Julio Baptista will be able to adapt to life in England.

The Brazilian signed for the Gunners on transfer deadline day in a loan deal from Real Madrid, with Jose Antonio Reyes moving in the opposite direction.

Reyes was unable to settle in London following his transfer from Sevilla but Wenger has no such worries about Baptista.

"It is a bit different when you take a player who has already stayed away from his country," Wenger said.

"Reyes was away for the first time, a young boy coming from Seville, which has a typical way of life.

"You have to create conditions where players are happy to be and that everything is right. With Reyes, it was a bit more adaptation problems to a different lifestyle. That is a risk you take when you sign foreign players.

"But you take a guy like Julio Baptista, he has already adapted from Brazil to Spain. Although culturally it is closer to Brazil than England, I believe he will adapt."