Exclusive: Arsenal and Liverpool's Keisuke Honda Transfer Link 'Just Rumours'

The agent of Keisuke Honda has told The International Business Times UK that reports of Liverpool and Arsenal's interest in the highly rated Japanese international are only "rumours".

The 25-year-old has long been associated with a move to the Premier League following his eye-catching showing at the 2010 World Cup, when Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger and his Liverpool counterpart at the time, Rafa Benitez, were rumoured to be targeting the forward.

Last month the International Business Times spoke exclusively to Honda's agent, Kees Ploegsma, who denied reports intimating that Arsenal and Liverpool were preparing offers for the CSKA Moscow star, and the player's representative has once again distanced the former VVV-Venlo attacking midfielder from a possible move to England in January.

"No, we know nothing about it, so he is going back to CSKA Moscow and that is it." Ploegsma told the IBTimes UK when pressed on speculation regarding Arsenal and Liverpool's rumoured advances. "Only rumours, just rumours, rumours, rumours."

CSKA Moscow coach Leonid Slutsky recently inferred the club's intention to retain the alleged Liverpool and Arsenal target, who has also been coveted by cash-rich Paris Saint-Germain and PSV, but speculation in respect of Premier League interest has been perpetual for some time.

In December, the Sunday Mirror claimed Arsene Wenger and Kenny Dalglish were plotting moves for the player, who is valued in the region of £12 million, but Liverpool and Arsenal's interest was once again dismissed as conjecture.

"There is no interest in Keisuke to report." He told the International Business Times back in December, when similar reports of Arsenal and Liverpool's alleged interest surfaced. "I have nothing else to add, there is no interest."

While neither Liverpool nor Arsenal have firmed up their admiration for Honda this month, the Premier League duo's interest in the 2010 World Cup star is long-standing.

Arsene Wenger, in his capacity as a television pundit for Eurosport during the aforementioned World Cup finals in South Africa, famously lauded the Japan talisman as a "genius", and Arsenal were subsequently reported to have held preliminary talks with the player. Likewise Liverpool have been associated with the player, who has been capped 31 times by his country, for a similar amount of a time.

In October, Liverpool confirmed their intention to widen their scouting network in order to take advantage of a saturated pool of talent that according to the Anfield director of football, Damien Comolli, remained relatively "untapped". Honda, and his hugely vaunted international colleague Shinji Kagawa, have since been perpetually linked with moves to the Premier League, with Arsenal and Manchester United amongst their alleged admirers.

Comolli confirmed that Liverpool were widening their scouting network to the Far East in order to focus on an apparent "untapped market", and Honda and his international colleague Shinji Kagawa, were very much on their radar. The two attacking playmakers are Japan's leading stars and the latter has also been coveted by Manchester United and Arsenal.