Vyacheslav Dmitriev has denied that he has agreed a deal
with Arsenal.
The 17-year-old is rated as one of the best young defenders in
Europe and has also attracted interest from Juventus.
However, both Dmitriev and his club Torpedo Moscow have played down
claims that a transfer in the offing.
"I haven't signed a contract with Arsenal as some newspapers have
wrote," said Dmitriev, who has been nicknamed the Elephant, in the
Russian media.
"If the interest is true, such a deal would only be possible anyway
if the clubs have negotiated."
No
deal
Reports claim that Arsenal have agreed a deal with Torpedo to take
Dmitriev in the summer - but their president Alexandr Tukmatov has
denied this.
"Nobody from England has contacted us enquiring about Dmitriev," he
said.
Dmitriev's agent Alexei Skoroed admitted there was previously an
interest from Arsenal, but it was from their youth
department.
"At the moment we are talking about a prior interest from Arsenal,"
he said.
"I got information from one European agent, but there have not been
anymore phone calls from England at the moment.
"Their interest was from the junior side.
"Earlier Italians were also interested in signing him, but he got
injured and only came back last October."