Wenger is close to ending his search for a central defender and striker

Its more than three months since the Australian womens rugby sevens side claimed the first ever Olympic sevens gold medal, but the title Olympic Champion remains as surreal as ever for Charlotte Caslick.With her exciting style of play and trademark braids, Caslick quickly became the face of sevens at the 2016 Rio Games. Hammering in defence and sharp in attack, the scrum-half dominated the competition, scoring seven tries across the three days of play, only missing in two games.Despite her sides achievements, Caslick continues to be amazed when the public recognizes her -- especially out of uniform.Yeah, [I am still walking on air] a little bit, Caslick told ESPN. Its a massive privilege to be able to classify us in that group of elite athletes - its obviously the pinnacle of all sports. Its always quite surreal telling someone youre an Olympic gold medallist.Sometimes [I dont have to tell people who I am], but I guess we look kind of different from when we play footy to what we do when were just walking around the streets. Some people definitely do recognise us, which is a bit surreal still as well; we never really expect people to know what we did or anything. But its always awesome when little kids come over and ask for autographs and stuff like that.The 21-year-old is no stranger to success. A national 800m champion in primary school and Australian touch football representative at both age-grade and open levels, she made the move to sevens at 18 and quickly caught the eye of coaches.Caslick won a gold medal at the Australian Youth Games festival in her debut season and was selected in the 2013 Australian World Cup team that competed in Russia. Just over a year later, she was named in World Rugbys 2014-15 Team of the Season and was nominated for the 2015 World Sevens Player of the Year.Its been a rapid rise for the Queenslander.It is crazy, it definitely happened really quickly, Caslick said. When we first went into it, Rio was our goal and a gold medal was our goal, so for the last four years weve been dreaming about that. But in comparison to other sports it did all happen very quickly.Securing their first ever World Rugby Sevens Series title just months out from the Olympics, the Aussie girls headed to Rio as clear favourites for gold.The pressure of expectation could have been an issue, but Caslick said the group learned to block out the white noise and focus only on themselves. In doing just that, the Aussies conceded a mere 34 points for the tournament and wowed a whole new audience with their entertaining attack play.Im not really surprised, I think we play an amazing style of rugby, Caslick said when asked about the groups new-found fame. If people didnt like watching it I dont know what theyre on about. I think the way we play is exciting and fast, and the calibre of players we have on our team; Im not surprised at all that people loved it.I think weve definitely won them over. The reception we got when we came home was just incredible, especially in the non-traditional rugby states of Australia. They all seemed to get behind us as well.Caslick capped an extraordinary 2016 when she was crowned the World Rugby Womens Sevens Player of the Year, the highest individual honour in the games shortened form. ?Its awesome, Caslick said. Its sometimes hard to get individual accolades, especially in a team sport, but its obviously a representation of how well the team performed this year.Without the girls out there I cant do my job properly. I definitely think its a representation of how we went [this season], and our style of footy we play allows me to play my best I guess.Caslicks response to the award was typical of her down-to-earth personality, but her work off the field certainly reflects her caring nature.Working alongside Australian mens Sevens player Jesse Parahai with his company Sense Rugby, the 21-year-old helps children with learning difficulties in providing an opportunity to experience team sports, something they may not otherwise get the chance to do. And she does it purely because she loves kids.Its an awesome group to work for, Caslick said. I love children and theyre kids who struggle to take instructions at a young age, so this gives them a chance to form their own teams or communities.Sometimes these kids can get left behind when it comes to team sports, but weve already seen some kids go back to play with their old teams.Despite a huge 2016 that involved the team winning almost every medal and award, Caslick was disappointing the Aussie side wasnt nominated for World Rugbys Team of the Year Award.It was a little bit disappointing [not getting nominated], considering we achieved the exact same goals of what Fiji had done, she said. But I guess, the position Fiji were in, to win their countrys first gold medal ever...Its disappointing, but were not there to win awards. Im sure the girls will go out next year and just keep playing footy and enjoying what we do. All of that stuff comes when youre just having fun and that breeds success.Back after a short break, Caslick has returned to training and is focused on the 2016/17 World Series, with the Australians kicking off their title defence in Dubai.Can 2016 be topped?We have to go back-to-back now, Caslick said.? The New Zealand womens team have won back-to-back World Series.So for us, this season, its all about character and backing up what weve done in the last season.? We definitely dont want to be one-hit-wonders, so we want to go out there and just keep our consistency up. Clyde Drexler Jersey . - Chris Tierney snapped a tie with a power-play goal late in the third period as the London Knights rallied from a 3-0 deficit to beat the Erie Otters 5-3 in Ontario Hockey League action on Wednesday. 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LONDON -- Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is close to ending his search for a central defender and striker, saying Friday the club is working on deals to sign Shkodran Mustafi from Valencia and Lucas Perez from Deportivo La Coruna.Wenger said he is 99 percent confident of completing the signings before Europes summer transfer window shuts late Wednesday.Asked if bringing in Mustafi and Perez would conclude Arsenals business in the transfer window, Wenger said: We already have a big squad ... and we cant have any more players.While the Manchester clubs have spent more than $400 million in the window, its been another underwhelming few months for Arsenal, whose only major signing was Switzerland midfielder Granit Xhaka.It was a strange transfer market -- I expected it to be easier than ever but it was more difficult than evver, Wenger said.dddddddddddd. Not a lot has happened.It looks like when you meet other clubs and you have an English passport, you hit these prices which are very difficult to understand compared to the quality of the players.Mustafi is a 24-year-old Germany center back and his arrival would solve an injury crisis, with Gabriel Paulista and Per Mertesacker currently sidelined with long-term problems.Perez, 27, is a Spanish striker who scored 17 goals for Deportivo last season -- the only time he has scored more than 10 goals in a single season. He likely will be a back-up to Olivier Giroud up front, with Wenger having failed with bids for Leicesters Jamie Vardy and Lyons Alexandre Lacazette. ' ' '