Tug-of-war for Barca's Guardiola

Barcelona captain Josep Guardiola is at the centre of a tug-of-war between Chelsea and Tottenham - after being turned down by Arsenal.

The Spanish international midfield player will be available on a free transfer at the end of the season.

His agent has been in touch with the three clubs because Guardiola wants to play in the Premiership and is keen moving to London.

Arsenal have already said they were not interested but Chelsea and Spurs have continued discussions. The stumbling block will be the Spaniard's wages. He wants £50,000 a week and a four-year deal.

Even Chelsea would hesitate to go that high and if Tottenham agree to those demands they would have a queue of existing players asking for pay rises.

Spurs manager Glenn Hoddle would also have to stage a big clear-out of players if the club's pay-role was inflated by the arrival of Guardiola.

The versatile player, who was 30 in January, joined Barcelona in 1990. He played for Spain last night in their 1-0 win over Japan in Cordoba. He has won nearly 50 caps for his country, with whom he won a gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

He was in the Barcelona team which won the European Cup at Wembley in 1992 and has collected a roomful of other medals and awards but now he is poised to leave Barcelona under the Bosman ruling.

That has alerted Europe's top clubs as well as initiating interest from Newcastle and at least one other Premiership club from outside London.