Arsene Wenger has admitted Alex Song could be sold this summer if the right offer came in, but revealed the club had not received any official bid from Barcelona. The Arsenal manager also confirmed the appointment of Thomas Vermaelen as club captain, with Mikel Arteta taking over the vice-captain spot.
Song has been linked with a move to the Spanish club for quite some time, with several reports suggesting Barca had already had a £15 million ($23.5 million) bid accepted. Wenger, while denying a bid had been made let alone accepted, admitted a sale was possible due to the depth in Arsenal's central midfield.
Asked if Song could leave and new players come in, in a news conference ahead of the Gunners' first English Premier League game of the season, Wenger said: "Both can happen.
"This decision (on Song) is not made. No (bid has been made). I cannot tell you more.
"Midfield is a different area because we have nine or 10 midfielders of top-class quality. Just today we have six or seven midfielders available, plus (Jack) Wilshere and (Emmanuel) Frimpong who are coming back (from injury).
(Abou) Diaby is available again, Arteta, (Santi) Cazorla, (Aaron) Ramsey, (Alex) Oxlade-Chamberlain now plays central midfield, this is an area we have much more freedom to make decisions."
Asked if Nuri Sahin was one of the targeted players, Wenger added: "He is one of the players we are following."
On expected lines, Wenger revealed Vermaelen would become the new captain, following the departure of Robin Van Persie to Manchester United, with Arteta his deputy. "It is Vermaelen and Arteta," Wenger said.
"Vermaelen was vice-captain, so it is a quick decision. I think we have many potential captains in the squad, but at the moment it will be like that."
Wenger will now be hoping Vermaelen won't be the latest player to ask for a move away after previous captains including Van Persie, Cesc Fabregas, Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira left the club, a season or two after being made captain.
The Arsenal manager regretted having to sell Van Persie, but admitted he was left with no choice. "We regret that we have lost a great player and for one simple reason -- he only had one year left on his contract. He wanted to go.
"We anticipated this situation might happen, therefore we bought Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud.
"(Selling to a rival) is not what we wanted but there was not much choice. We had only one club really interested at the level we thought would be acceptable and that was Manchester United.
"At the end of the day, (selling) was the only decision we could make.
"We have already invested the money because we bought three players -- Cazorla, Podolski and Giroud. Therefore if needed we will invest more."
Wenger confirmed Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Laurent Koscielny will miss the Sunderland game, but the Frenchman was confident Theo Walcott would be available, while admitting Cazorla and Song would have to be assessed. "We miss Koscielny and Oxlade-Chamberlain for the injuries they got in the last game against Cologne," the manager said.
"They had to pull out of their respective national teams as well so those two will miss the game tomorrow. Oxlade-Chamberlain has an ankle problem, Koscielny a calf. Both have a chance to be fit for Stoke.
"We have to assess Walcott, who had to pull out of the national team. But he should be okay to play.
"We have a few tests today because some players came back today (from internationals) and played 90 minutes, like Cazorla in Puerto Rico. Some players like Song have little knocks. We will see about them today."
