Arsene Wenger has expressed his strong desire to keep hold of key players Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri.
The manager has had to fight off interest from Barcelona and Real Madrid for his captain, but held strong last summer to keep Fabregas at the club.
Now he faces a struggle to keep Manchester United and Manchester City’s hands off Samir Nasri, who has only one year remaining on his contract at Arsenal.
“Our position is always the same, we want to keep Cesc and I will fight as hard as I can to keep him,” said Wenger.
“Samir Nasri is exactly the same. We will do everything we can to keep him.”
Wenger has also reportedly claimed Gervinho is close to joining the Gunners from French champions Lille, but does not want to give too much away before a deal is finalised.
“We are working very hard on it,” he explained. “For me, the best thing is not to talk too much about it. The more you speak about things, the less chance you have to achieve them. The only thing that I can promise you is that we will work very hard and we have had some long nights to achieve what we want to achieve.
“I can understand [the impatience among the fans]. Believe me, I know all the clubs in the world and everybody needs the same players for the same positions. If there were an obvious choice, people would have already made their decisions. We are at the top level and therefore need exceptional quality to strengthen our side. I can understand that people say ‘you have money, just go out and buy’. But it’s not only that, we want to find the quality we need.”
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