Arsenal are preparing to enter the race to sign Gareth Barry and are also considering a bid for £12 million rated Roma midfielder Alberto Aquilani.
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Arsene Wenger has drawn up a shortlist of players he wants to add to his squad this summer and his priority is beefing up a midfield that has lost Frenchmen Mathieu Flamini and Lassana Diarra since the turn of the year.
Wenger is searching for a central midfield anchorman to play alongside Cesc Fabregas, who has told the Arsenal manager that he will not be seduced by Real Madrid or Barcelona into a return to Spain this summer.
The Arsenal manager is weighing up bids for Aston Villa's Barry, who has been a mainstay of the England squad this season since moving to a more central, holding midfield role under Martin O'Neill, and 23-year-old Aquilani, who has won four Italy caps and is also attracting interest from Manchester United.
Wenger faces strong competition for Barry from Liverpool, who made a players-plus-cash offer of around £10 million for the England midfielder last week, and Chelsea.
O'Neill and Barry will hold talks early next week to discuss the player's future and, while the Villa manager has been publicly bullish about the prospect of holding on to the 27-year-old, privately he accepts that Barry will move on to a club in the summer who can offer him Champions League football and the prospect of a significant hike on his £42,000-a-week salary.
Wenger was disappointed to lose Diarra to Portsmouth in January and Flamini to AC Milan this week and has accepted that he might have to spend the bulk of his £30 million summer budget on replacements for the pair, even though veteran Brazilian Gilberto is considering a U-turn and staying at the Emirates Stadium.
Such is Wenger's desire to strengthen his squad that even if he was able to steal Barry from under Liverpool's noses, he would still pursue a move for Aquilani, who impressed the Frenchman during Roma's last-16 Champions League defeat to United in March.
Wenger is also planning on buying a left-back to understudy Gael Clichy and a left-winger to provide competition for the injury-prone Tomas Rosicky.
One player who the Arsenal manager is desperate to hang on to is Alexander Hleb, who has been linked with a move to Inter Milan.
"We want to keep Hleb, we want him to be part of our team next year," said Wenger. "It is as simple as that. We have lost one player [Flamini], we do not want to lose more."
Wenger again refused to confirm who would captain the team next season.
William Gallas came in for criticism when he broke down in the centre-circle following the last-gasp draw at Birmingham"I don't share the view that Gallas is a bad captain. He is a captain who is very committed and tries to work hard for the team," said Wenger.
"He had an outburst at Birmingham, but I still believe today that, even if that was a mistake, that was not why we did not win the championship.
"That would be too easy as an excuse because there are other incidents. That would be a cheap excuse.
"At the time of the Birmingham game we were five points in front and everybody had been praising his captaincy.
"I believe we all make mistakes and we had to come back as a unit and try to win the championship."
However, Wenger would not commit on just who would wear the armband come August.
"It the captaincy issue has been raised by a lot of newspapers, but I must say I have not looked at the situation yet," he said.
