Arsenal legend Ray Parlour believes that top quality holding midfielders are hard to find in the current transfer market.

Parlour was critical of his old club for not pursuing recent Manchester United signing Morgan Schneiderlin when he was at Southampton.

When asked who he would sign if he was in charge of the Gunners, former midfielder Parlour told The Sport Review: "People say (Arturo) Vidal, but it looks like he's going to Bayern Munich.

"I watched (William) Carvalho in the Under 21 Championship – he has a big presence, someone in that mould might be good moving forward.

"But again, they're very hard to find, these top quality players – like Patrick Vieira when I played. That's why the scouting system has to be very good and quick in getting into the reckoning and saying they're the player we need."