Liverpool have denied Bayern Munich's claims that they have fixed a deal to bring Markus Babbel to Anfield.

The German champions claim defender Babbel will move to Liverpool at the end of next season on a free transfer, when his current contract expires.

But Liverpool last night denied any such deal exists. Club spokesman Ian Cotton said: "We have no agreement with the player."

Cotton was responding to claims by Bayern vice-president Karl-Heinz Rummenigge that Babbel had rejected a £7million bid from Real Madrid in favour of Liverpool.

"We believe that there is an agreement between Babbel and Liverpool," Rummenigge said. "You cannot see his refusal for a move to Real Madrid in any other way.

"We would have let him go to Spain for their offer of £7million. It would have been foolish to refuse that with only a year left on his contract.

"The previous offer from Liverpool was for half of that and that was not enough."

Babbel denied that the Spanish club had approached him but admitted he wanted to play in the English Premiership.

"The fact is that I never had an offer from Real Madrid but my dream has always been to play in England," said Babbel.

Liverpool have repeated their "hands off Robbie Fowler" warning to Arsenal after Arsene Wenger admitted his interest in the striker.

"We issued a joint statement some weeks ago that Robbie did not want to leave and was not for sale. That is how the matter still stands," said Liverpool executive vice-chairman Peter Robinson.

Meanwhile, Arsenal are prepared to call Lazio's bluff and keep rebel striker Nicolas Anelka on the Highbury payroll if the Italian club do not significantly increase their £20million offer for the 20-year-old French international star.

The Lazio bid is already a staggering offer which, if accepted, would quadruple the club record fees Arsenal received for strikers John Hartson and Paul Merson when they were sold within four months of each other two years ago.

But the Gunners would prefer to keep Anelka despite the long-running saga of his apparent dissatisfaction with life in London - and firm indications by his agents, brothers Claude and Didier, that he would be prepared to go on strike if forced to adhere to his five-year contract at Highbury.

Lazio president Sergio Cragnotti, whose agent Vincenzo Morabito has been negotiating with Arsenal for a month since they rejected a bid to snatch Anelka by Real Madrid - whom they also reported Real to FIFA, alleging an illegal approach to the player - said: "We will make a small improvement to the offer but it will be our final offer and if that is not accepted by tonight we will leave the negotiating table."

But Arsenal's influential vice-chairman David Dein, who conducts most of the club's transfer business, is confident Lazio's Serie A rivals Juventus would still top the Roman club's "final offer" and is ready to continue the frustrating game of brinkmanship over Anelka which has been the talk of Highbury since the end of last season.

Dein is believed to want to keep Juventus' interest alive as they could offer France winger Thierry Henry as part of a deal for Anelka.

Kevin Campbell will fly to Turkey today as he looks to end his long-running transfer saga.

Trabzonspor have invited Campbell and Everton secretary Michael Dunford to Istanbul to speak to officials of the Turkish club.

The Blues are believed to be optimistic that a solution to the situation may be near.

Recent talks between the two clubs at Goodison broke down because of Trabzonspor's insistence on a £3.5million fee for the striker, who claims a clause in his contract states he should be allowed to leave for £3 million.

Campbell is currently having to train on his own.