Wenger rules out King swoop

Arsene Wenger admits he will not spend £20 million on Tottenham's Ledley King.

Speculation had suggested the Arsenal boss was planning a big-money transfer window swoop for the England international.

King has established himself as the lynchpin of the Spurs defence, with his performances attracting the interest of the club's North London rivals.

But Wenger has scotched fanciful talk that he will splash out £20 million to bring King down the same road as his former Spurs team-mate Sol Campbell.

"I like Ledley King but I have four centre backs and I am not at all in the market to spend £20 million as was said in the newspaper," commented Wenger.

"I rate King highly as a player but we are not in the market to buy Ledley King."

Wenger also expanded on the long-running saga of Edu's contract situation at Highbury, with the midfielder's present deal expiring at the end of the season.

Edu claims he has received just one offer from the Premiership champions but Wenger insists the club want to keep the Brazilian, who has caught the eye of old rivals Manchester United.

The French tactician added: "There are two points I want to make clear.

"First of all, we care about our players and especially care about Edu because we have made him another offer. That means we want him to stay.

"Also, we want to keep our contract talks, as much as possible, a secret. We care about Edu and have shown that in the past.

"I don't know what he has said and what he is supposed to have said. I don't react to supposed statements in newspapers because I haven't heard him say that directly."

Meanwhile, Wenger remains confident Arsenal can taste glory in the UEFA Champions League after being paired with Bayern Munich in the knockout round.

He continued: "I still have the belief that we can do it but it's far from being done and we go step by step.

"You knew before that it would be a big team and the most important thing for us is to be at a good level when we play against them.

"At the moment, the championship is so big and important, this game looks so far away. We need our belief to be high in February."