Alex Hleb today made his position at Arsenal all but untenable with an attack upon manager Arsene Wenger and captain-elect Cesc Fabregas.

Despite two years remaining on his contract, midfielder Hleb sees his immediate future at Barcelona and he has done his best to engineer a move by questioning Wenger's tactics and labelling Fabregas as "greedy".

The 27-year-old Belarus international, whose valuation by Arsenal of £18million is understood to be £3m more than Barcelona's, said: "My view of how I should be playing and Wenger's didn't coincide at all.

"I raised the subject of leaving with him twice before the end of the season. It's not easy for me to leave and I think he was upset about it. But ask him. It may turn out he's happy about it."

Indeed, Wenger appears to have made contingency plans with the £13m signing of French international Samir Nasri from Marseilles. Arsenal report back for pre-season training later this week, but Hleb set up an interesting meeting with Euro 2008 winner Fabregas by saying: "With scoring opportunities he's more selfish than I am. Given the chance to shoot he always goes for it, unlike me."

Meanwhile, new boy Aaron Ramsey, signed from Cardiff for £5m, is eager to make an immediate impression.

The 17-year-old midfielder said: "I want to make the starting line-up at the beginning of the season against West Brom."