Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood is not aware of any fresh developments in the "long-running sagas" over Alexander Hleb and Emmanuel Adebayor.

Belarusian midfielder Hleb has been strongly linked with a move to Barcelona, and is reportedly set to complete his transfer in the coming days.

Meanwhile Adebayor's future is uncertain though Gunners boss Arsene Wenger insists the striker will stay despite interest from AC Milan and Barca.

When asked of the latest news on the duo's futures, Hill-Wood told the club's official website: "No, nothing new. But it is a long-running saga in both cases."

So far this summer Wenger has landed teenage midfielder Aaron Ramsey from Cardiff and France international Samir Nasri from Marseille.

And Hill-Wood is excited by the potential of Arsenal's latest recruits ahead of the new season.

He said: "I don't know a great deal but it doesn't terribly matter what I think. The man who matters is Arsene Wenger and he has very high hopes for both of them.

"They are pretty young and Arsene believes they can be pretty fine players. Nasri is a bit more advanced than Ramsey, who is 17.

"Samir has played at the top level and is an established player already. They are two very exciting prospects and they will strengthen the squad in a big way."

Wenger has continually resisted the temptation to invest in one big name, preferring instead to develop the talents of promising youngsters like Euro 2008 winner Cesc Fabregas and Togo international Adebayor, who was plucked from Monaco in January 2006.

It is a policy fully endorsed by the Arsenal chairman.

Hill-Wood added: "Buying a whole lot of stars and hoping to mould them together is one way of doing it, but it is not Arsene's way.

"He prefers to build long-term as best he can and develop young players in the way he wants them to play. I am personally very much in favour of that."

Arsenal, though, are unwilling to go head to head with the other big Premier League three in terms of wages and transfer fees, as they look to maintain a strict wage structure and balance the books following their £350million move to the Emirates Stadium, which has been funded in a large part by a long-term fixed-rate debt repayment.

Hill-Wood, though, insists such tough decisions are a necessity.

He said: "Maybe people need to be waking up to the realities of the world and that the days of easy money have come to a pretty sudden end.

"There is an awful lot of talk about big transfers and major demands of players, but you will find throughout the UK and Europe that money is not quite as easy to obtain as it used to be."

Hill-Wood added: "A lot of people don't seem to realise that in the long run you must run a football club on a sensible commercial basis.

"A lot of the figures bandied around at the moment don't make commercial sense to us. That is what disappoints me, that people are prepared to do what can be construed as very silly things."

Arsenal are currently looking for a new, full-time chief executive following the departure of Keith Edelman.

David McNally, the former managing director at Fulham and ex-Manchester City chief executive Alistair Mackintosh have both been linked with the vacancy.

Hill-Wood said: "We want to make an appointment as soon as we can and we are moving fast.

"We have some very interesting applicants and I hope in the next month or so we will be able to make a decision."

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