The future of the Bulgarian, 26, remains the subject of much speculation - with Chelsea said to be ready to launch a £30million raid - which the player claims have made him 'fed up'.

Wenger has long been an admirer of the powerful 6ft 2in forward, but felt he already had several attacking options when considering a bid himself.

The Arsenal manager declared: "He is top class. He always has time on the pitch and when you play against him he is always in the places you don't want him to be.

"He is what I call a top class striker because he can provide, he can score, he can be at the start of the move and at the end of it. That is a sign of quality."

Asked if he had ever considered a move for Berbatov, Wenger told Arsenal TV Online: "Yes, when he played for Bayer Leverkusen. I noticed him once when he played against Real Madrid. He was a young boy at the time, but we were never in need of him.

"We had Thierry Henry, we had Robin van Persie. Then we got [Emmanuel] Adebayor, but I have known about him for a long time."

Wenger added: "I look always more at the individual quality of a player first and Berbatov had technical top quality, he is tall, in England it helps.

"When building a team in England sometimes you think on set-pieces not only offensively, but defensively you don't want to be caught."