Arsenal are preparing to fight Barcelona for the services of their midfielder Cesc Fábregas and insist they have not set a fee for a player they are not prepared to sell.
The Arsenal chairman, Peter Hill-Wood, has told the Spanish side that their captain is not available for transfer and claims the club's board have not discussed a fee for the player.
"We have made it perfectly clear we don't want to lose him. The message has been given to them we don't want to lose him and will do our damnedest to keep him," Hill-Wood told Goal.com. "We haven't had an official approach from them and have made it perfectly clear we don't want to lose him."
Barcelona, who signed David Villa from Valencia for £34m earlier this week, are reported to value Fábregas at £30m. However, though Arsenal value him much more highly than that, the club have refused to put a price on his head.
"It's not an issue," said Hill-Wood. "We haven't even discussed it. I don't know if he will stay. I've really got little to say but we very much hope he stays with us and we're confident he will."
Barcelona have long courted Fábregas, often in public and in the media. It is a tactic that Hill-Wood called "a funny way of doing business" but he did concede that, should the midfielder leave, that Arsenal would cope. "We have done pretty well without one or two other star players," he said in reference to the departures and retirements of Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira, Dennis Bergkamp and Tony Adams."
The chairman confirmed that the club's manager Arsène Wenger has money to spend this summer but added that he would only do so for the right player. He added that Arsenal expect to sign Marouane Chamakh soon and that the defenders William Gallas and Sol Campbell have been offered new one-year contracts.
