Trabelsi deal faltering but Vieira staying - Wenger

Arsenal’s bid to sign Tunisian right back Hatem Trabelsi from Ajax is on the brink of collapse – as manager Arsene Wenger continues to insist Patrick Vieira will not be leaving the Gunners.

Wenger, who has added midfielder Mathieu Flamini from Marseilles and goalkeeper Manuel Almunia from Celta Vigo to his squad this summer admits he wants to sign a right back and has “some interest” in Trabelsi and said “although there is still a chance for him we have some disagreements”.

In fact, the two are so far apart on personal terms that the entire deal looks doomed and that could let Newcastle United back in.

Magpies manager Bobby Robson has been closely monitoring Trabelsi’s efforts to extricate himself from a contract dispute at Ajax and was reportedly willing to pay the Amsterdam club’s asking price to conclude the issue.

Trabelsi, however, apparently preferred the Arsenal option but it appears his salary and signing-on demands have proved too rich for the Premiership champions.

Wenger is ready to pull back from a proposed deal and has also declared he is “not interested” in potential Vieira replacement, Nuno Maniche, FC Porto’s Portugal midfielder.

Porto have claimed Arsenal are already negotiating to buy the Euro 2004 star but Wenger said: “I speak to a few agents but that doesn’t mean I want to buy the players.

“I rate him (Maniche) but we have enough players, if not too many, in the middle of the park.”

Wenger has been decrying the almost annual mass media speculation over Vieira’s future for more than a week but now comes out in the strongest possible defiance on Arsenal’s official website www.arsenal.com, insisting his captain will be in his usual place at the start of the season – if fit.

The Highbury boss said: “He will not go to Real Madrid. I have said it 100 times. If it was going to happen it would have happened a long time ago.

“He will be here at the start of the season if he is the best in his position and fit.”

Some sources say Real want to clinch a deal to buy Vieira before next Thursday so that he is eligible for their two-leg Champions League qualifier.

Others claim they would be willing to wait until just before the end of the August transfer window to recruit the France star – or even until January.

But, as Wenger, points out, there has still been no official bid, even though general opinion indicates Arsenal would accept £30m (€45m) or more.

Other reports say Real’s chief negotiating agent Luis Vicente is in London talking to Vieira’s representative Steve Kutner and plans to start the bidding at just £21m (€31m).

Meanwhile David Dein, Arsenal’s full-time director and vice-chairman, is still not willing to say anything on a subject which his chairman Peter Hill-Wood has already called “irritating”.

In Austria where Arsenal are on tour, a source close to the Arsenal players says they are lampooning Vieira over the transfer speculation and that the midfielder is joining in the banter.

And Wenger said: “The speculation exists but if it is not about him (Vieira) it will be about somebody else. I don’t know who it is in the press who wants all our players to go every year but at the end we always start (the new season) with the same players.

“No team has been as stable as us in the last five years. If you want to come out every day and deny what is written you have a big job to do. I believe we have to concentrate on our jobs and our job is to practice, and play and prepare.”

Arsenal have had a setback with Sol Campbell’s achilles injury – which flared last season – keeping him out of training at their camp in Austria but the England centre back should play in at least one of the games at the annual Amsterdam festival next weekend against either Ajax or Argentina’s River Plate.

Brazilian midfielder Gilberto has also been sidelined by a back problem and Edu, who replaced him in the World Champions' squad for the Copa America, scoring in the penalty shoot-out by which they beat Argentina in Sunday’s final, is unlikely to rejoin the Arsenal squad until the start of the new season.

None of Arsenal’s Euro 2004 stars, including Vieira, played in the 2-1 win on Sunday against Grazer AK, having only arrived back on duty at lunch-time, but some could turn out against Sturm Graz on Wednesday.

Wenger is conscious of the thigh injury which troubled Vieira during France’s Euro 2004 campaign and the skipper’s appearances before the Community Shield clash with Manchester United on August 8 are expected to be sporadic at best.