Arsène Wenger has responded to Arsenal's troubled start to the season by making a bid for the Rennes holding midfielder Yann M'Vila. The manager's attempt to strengthen his team came as hopes grew that Jack Wilshere will return from ankle trouble to face Udinese in Wednesday's pivotal Champions League play-off second leg.

M'Vila, who has established himself as a regular in the France team, would cost £12m. The 21-year-old is under contract until 2015 but Rennes have allowed Wenger to talk to him. Arsenal's manager also has an interest in Sochaux's attacking midfielder Marvin Martin.

Wenger's immediate concern, though, is his midfield to face Udinese. Wilshere, who has not featured this season, had been considered a major doubt for the trip to north-eastern Italy, where Arsenal will attempt to protect a 1-0 lead and qualify for the group stage of Europe's elite competition for the 14th year in a row.

He left the Emirates Stadium after last Tuesday's first-leg against the Italian team with a foot in a protective boot and he missed the morale-sapping 2-0 home defeat to Liverpool on Saturday, when the problems mounted for Wenger.

Wilshere, though, came back to training on Thursday and provided he suffers no reaction before the squad fly to Italy on Tuesday afternoon, he will board with them. "Jack has a chance to play," Wenger said. "He has trained Thursday, Friday, Saturday."

Wenger's attitude towards Wilshere will be coloured with caution but given the stakes at the Stadio Friuli, he will be tempted to press him into action. The manager was without nine players against Liverpool through injury and suspension, and he lost the centre-half Laurent Koscielny to a back spasm in the 16th minute.

He will be able to pick the midfielder Alex Song and the forward Gervinho, as their three-match bans apply only to domestic competitions, while the central defender Johan Djourou "has a chance", according to Wenger, of returning from a hamstring injury. The midfielder Emmanuel Frimpong, who was sent off against Liverpool and will be suspended for Sunday's league fixture at Manchester United, will also be available against Udinese.

The obvious solution to the club's personnel problems is for Wenger to strengthen in the transfer market, and many supporters at the Emirates were keen to remind the Frenchman of that. Wenger said that Arsenal had "the money to buy players, we are not short of money", and he rejected the notion that the more he was urged to spend, the less likely he would be to do so.

"People feel I'm stubborn … I'm not," Wenger added. "I just want to do the best for the team and to buy the right players. If I have shown one thing in the last 15 years, it's that I have bought good players here.

"What you forget is we have bought players. We have bought Gervinho, [Alex Oxlade-] Chamberlain, [Carl] Jenkinson, [Ryo] Miyaichi, and you will see during the season they are top-quality players. But at the moment, we have to give them some time.

"Overall, we will buy. We will bring experienced players as well. People just say 'buy' but it's to buy the right player which is difficult."