ARSENAL TRANSFER RUMOURS: M?Vila, Giroud, Dzagoev And Van Persie Involved In Recent Speculation

And Arsenal's attempts to sign the France midfielder could be further hampered by the reported interest of Barcelona. According to TalkSport, and reports in France, the Catalan giants are ready to step up their pursuit of the 21-year-old.

While at first glance Barcelona and M'Vila appears an unlikely match, it could be that new coach Tito Vilanova sees the Rennes star as the man to replace the likely-to-depart Seydou Keita.

With the increased interest in their player's services it is perhaps little surprise that Rennes' asking price has increased to £20 million. If M'Vila performs well in the next few weeks, expect that valuation to soar even higher.

There is more encouraging speculation about another Frenchman currently in Ukraine, Olivier Giroud. The Daily Mirror reports on Monday that the Gunners have agreed a £13 million fee with Montpellier for the striker.

There has yet to be any confirmation from any party involved to verify these reports, though, and it is unlikely that there will be major developments for as long as France remain involved in the European Championships.

Giroud was the joint top scorer in Ligue 1 and has been linked with a move to the Emirates for some time to take some of the scoring pressure off of Robin van Persie.

The Dutchman has also be in the news, as chairman Peter Hill-Wood issued a resigned tone about the club's ability to compete financially with Van Persie's suitors.

If somebody comes along and offers Robin £250,000 a week then I am afraid we cannot compete with that, he said, according to Sky Sports.

With players, you never know what they are going to do.

However, Hill-Wood also made an encouraging statement about Arsenal's commitment to strengthening their squad this summer.

Hopefully we can reach agreement with Robin and ideally he will extend his contract.

We have already brought in one new player in Lukas Podolski and I believe we will bring in more. I am confident we will, in fact.

If reports are to be believed, part of that refurbishment could include CSKA Moscow's Alan Dzagoev. The 21-year-old has been one of the star performers during the early stages of Euro 2012 after hitting two goals for Russia against Czech Republic.

According to Metro, Arsenal, as well as London rivals Chelsea, are pursuing the versatile attacking midfielder, who has just a year remaining on his contract.

At this stage, it's hard to read too much into this speculation. It is common practice for any player that impresses at a major tournament to be linked by the British tabloids to a host of top Premier League clubs. But with Dzagoev being tipped as a future star for some time, it is quite possible that boss Arsene Wenger has been taking a serious look at him.