Vieira not going to Chelsea, insists Wenger

ARSENAL boss Arsene Wenger has warned Chelsea they will fail in any bid to sign Patrick Vieira as he defiantly insisted none of his leading players are for sale.

Wenger remains confident that Vieira, who has just one year left on his contract, will sign a new deal despite a recent warning he could always walk away on a Bosman free transfer next summer if the terms are not right.

The Arsenal boss also believes Dennis Bergkamp will sign a new one-year contract, probably by the end of the week. Wenger nevertheless has yet to make any pre-season signings to strengthen his squad, despite the departure of keeper David Seaman.

Although fringe players like Kanu could yet be sold to make way for new arrivals, his main priority is to keep the core of his existing squad together and Vieira remains absolutely essential to Arsenal’s cause.

Chelsea have been monitoring Arsenal’s attempts to agree a new deal with the French international, who wants a conclusion before the start of the new season, and reports indicate they are set to make a £20m bid.

However, Wenger said: “Our players are definitely not for sale. The situation at the moment is that Patrick Vieira has not signed, but I am confident that he will.”

As for Bergkamp, who is looking for a new one-year deal to finish his career at Highbury, the club are hopeful terms can finally be agreed this week after their initial low offer was increased.

“We are still talking and there will be a decision in the next few days,” Wenger said.

“But I am confident. We always keep our negotiations secret but they are in better shape than has been indicated.”

While Wenger is committed to signing a new goalkeeper in the next month, Arsenal’s inactivity in the transfer market has mainly been due to the financial restrictions caused by their new stadium project.

However, the club is determined to resist any moves by two local residents to further disrupt their plans to build a new 60,000-capacity stadium at Ashburton Grove.

The project has already been delayed, with the projected completion date pushed back to the start of the 2006-07 season, due to various planning issues.

Now two Islington residents have enlisted the help of EarthRights solicitors to fight Arsenal’s planning permission by trying to take their case to the European Court of Human Rights. They allege that the Gunners infringed their rights under the European Convention of Human Rights by allegedly withholding information, which could have altered the outcome of the planning permission request.

EarthRights claim the information, some of which related to the funding of the project, was withheld from local councillors in December 2001 and also from the high court last year, when a previous legal challenge was rejected.

Charlie Hopkins, of EarthRights, said: “Even in December 2001 there was evidence that Arsenal’s plans were not financially viable and this evidence should have been given to the politicians who made the decision to approve the plans.

“It might have produced a different result, saving a lot of expense and distress all round.

“We believe that the British courts should have granted an appeal but since they did not our clients are taking the case to Strasbourg and it may be many months before a decision is taken,” he said.

Arsenal, however, are confident the scheme will still go ahead and argue that, as they have still not finalised their financing plans, they could not have been expected to have released any more information to the public domain.

Arsenal later released a statement, in which they insisted that the project would not be delayed by any further legal challenge and described the information released by EarthRights solicitors as misleading.

The statement said: “The crux of the matter is that the club has received planning consent for the new stadium project at every level.

“In layman’s terms, the planning permission which has been granted is legally unchallengeable and therefore the outcome of any appeal to the European Court of Human Rights will have no effect on the project’s progression.

“Naturally, we remain fully committed to relocating to Ashburton Grove,” it read.