Souness warning on 'priceless' Friedel

Graeme Souness, the Blackburn Rovers manager, will resist any bid for his goalkeeper Brad Friedel. Arsenal, who are known to be interested in the player, may well face intense competition from Manchester United.

Souness knows there is growing interest in the United States World Cup player, who was voted the best keeper in the Premiership by his fellow professionals this season.

Friedel is on the wish list of the Arsenal manager, Arsène Wenger, as the long-term replacement for David Seaman and tentative moves have already been made. Manchester Untied have now been mentioned as potential bidders, although their manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, knows the American would cost a fortune.

Souness, however, is under no pressure to sell and Friedel is tied up on a new contract which keeps him at Blackburn, where he has excelled since signing from Liverpool on a free transfer three seasons ago.

"Brad is the best, but don't take my word for it, look at the PFA team of the year when he was voted as their choice," Souness said. "Brad is priceless. He is worth 12 or 15 points a season to us. What value do you put on that over the four or five years of his contract?"

Rovers would need around £10m even to be involved in a conversation about Friedel and that would appear to rule cash-strapped Arsenal out of the race, unless they sell a player first. United, too, have to be careful with their spending.

Souness is relishing Friedel's success after he took the goalkeeper from Anfield when he was being allowed to leave and faced being thrown out of the country at the end of his work permit.

Souness said: "Brad has to be the best signing I have made. I thought it was Ray Wilkins at Rangers when I took him there for £200,000, but that was before I got Brad for nothing."

Souness hopes he can sign some more players for Blackburn despite having to let Hakan Sukur go because the club could not offer him a good enough deal to stay. A bid for the Rangers captain, Lorenzo Amoruso, has not been pursued because he is "too expensive".

Souness admits that he wants Millwall's Steven Reid but that may be all he can afford. Yet he did issue a warning to his own club over spending. "If we stand still then we will be overtaken," he said.