Liverpool and Arsenal are locked in a £10m battle for French sensation Samir Nasri.
The Marseille midfielder, France's Player of the Year last season, has been hailed as ‘the new Zidane'.
Liverpool have a good relationship with Marseille, having sold them Djibril Cisse for a cut-price £6m in the summer, and have asked to be the first informed when the La Ligue club decide to cash in.
But Arsene Wenger has a £70m transfer fund to hand and could gazump Rafa Benitez.
Nasri, 20, who has a handful of French caps, might also be swayed by the strong contingent of French youngsters now at the Emirates.
The player has had a virus in the last couple of weeks. But as long as the illness poses no long-term problem, Wenger and Benitez will move in the transfer window.
Liverpool have raided Real Madrid to sign 16-year-old Argentine midfield prodigy Gerardo Bruna.
