Stalemate over Schwarzer as Arsenal refuse to meet £5m fee

(AP)

The saga over Arsenal's attempts to sign Fulham's goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer looks set to run into the last week of the transfer window, with no decision yet made by the Fulham hierarchy as to whether the Australian can leave.

Arsenal have offered £2m and consider Fulham's £5m valuation of Schwarzer to be unrealistic, and there is also the question of Fulham finding a replacement. The indications are Manchester City's disaffected Shay Given will sign for Celtic.

Arsenal are considering a £3.5m bid from Benfica for Armand Traoré, who has lost his place as Gaël Clichy's understudy at left-back to Kieran Gibbs.

The club announced yesterday that the 18-year-old midfielder Emmanuel Frimpong had torn his cruciate knee ligaments and would miss the rest of the season. Frimpong, born in Ghana but an England youth international, is one of a promising generation of players who won the Under-18 Premier Academy League title last season. He played in three of Arsenal's pre-season friendlies.

Arsène Wenger said: "We have had another blow with Emmanuel Frimpong. He has done his cruciate in training. That is a massive blow. A cruciate is six to nine months. I rate him highly and I still have a lot of faith in him, but we will miss him for six to nine months."