Tottenham turn down Anzhi Makhachkala bid for Younes Kabou

Younes Kaboul in pre-season action for Tottenham Hotspur at Stevenage. He will not be joining Anzhi Makhachkala.

Anzhi Makhachkala. the Russian Premier League club, have been rebuffed in an attempt to secure Tottenham Hotspur's Younès Kaboul on loan ahead of the resumption of their domestic season next month.

Kaboul, so impressive last season, has not featured for Tottenham since the opening game of the current campaign after suffering a serious knee injury which required surgery, but he recently returned to training and may yet play a role in the club's run-in as they pursue a top-four finish. The France international earns around £35,000 a week at White Hart Lane and would earn considerably more with a move to the money-flushed Dagestan club, but Spurs are keen to retain his services.

Anzhi have been searching for a replacement for Christopher Samba, who left abruptly for Queens Park Rangers in January for £12.5m, and had inquired as to Kaboul's availability this month.

Tottenham were resistant then and, with the Russian transfer window to close at midnight on Wednesday night, were equally forceful in their dismissal of a proposed temporary transfer this week with the manager, André Villas-Boas, thought to have personally indicated to the club his desire to retain Kaboul.

The Frenchman's contract at Tottenham expires in 2014 and he is likely to be offered new terms to remain at the club where he is enjoying his second spell as a player, once he has proved his fitness.

That represents a blow for Anzhi who resume their league campaign at Mordovia Saransk on 10 March following the league's winter break. They are second in the table, two points behind CSKA Moscow, with 11 games remaining and have reached the last 16 of the Europa League. They have purchased the Brazilian winger Willian from Shakhtar Donetsk and the Russia left-back Andrey Yeshchenko from Lokomotiv Moscow during the current window.

The Spurs midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson, meanwhile, has warned his team-mates that the race for the Champions League will not be over even if Tottenham beat Arsenal at White Hart Lane on Sunday.

"It is going to be a massive game for us," said the Iceland international. "However, anything is possible in football. The league was won in the last minute on the last day [last time], so even if we beat them it is not finished. We want to get in to the Champions League, that is our aim. If we achieve that, we want to finish as high as we can."

Arsenal are set to immortalise Dennis Bergkamp by placing a statue of the former forward outside the Emirates. The club already have statues of their former captains Thierry Henry and Tony Adams, as well as their legendary manager Herbert Chapman. Now images of the proposed Bergkamp statue have emerged on Twitter, with the pose taken from him controlling the ball in mid-air against Newcastle in 2003.

Bergkamp, who was part of the Invincibles team of 2003-04 and was voted second behind Henry by Arsenal fans in a poll of the club's all-time greatest players, is currently working as No2 at Ajax alongside the manager Frank de Boer and has been tipped to take over from Liam Brady, who is leaving his role as head of the academy this year.