Wenger determined to retain key duo

Arsene Wenger has vowed to do everything possible to keep Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri at Arsenal next season.

Fabregas has been persistently pursued by European champions Barcelona while Nasri, who has one year remaining on his contract, is being courted by English Premier League rivals Manchester United and Manchester City.

But Gunners manager Wenger says the club is determined to keep both players at the Emirates next season.

“Our position is always the same, we want to keep Cesc and I will fight as hard as I can to keep him,” he told the club’s official website.

“Samir Nasri is exactly the same. We will do everything we can to keep him.”

Reports of an impending Fabregas exit have intensified after confirmation that he will miss his side’s pre-season tour of Malaysia, though Wenger claims this is due to injury. Nasri is expected to fly out with the rest of the squad.

“We will take the strongest possible squad,” Wenger said of the tour.

“Fabregas will not travel because he still has a small muscular problem. He will stay and practice here. There is a doubt about (Emmanuel) Eboue, who has done his calf.”

Wenger is closing in on his first big-money signing of the close-season, Lille attacker Gervinho, and the Frenchman insists that there will be more new arrivals.

“We are working very hard on it (bringing in new players)”, he said.

“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.”

“My responsibility is first of all not to lose players and then to add and make us stronger.”