Wenger shuts down RvP discussion

Manager deems non-stop transfer talk a distraction

By Zain Alvi | 28th July 2012

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has made it known that he won’t let the transfer speculation surrounding the future of skipper Robin van Persie hurt the team’s pre-season preparations, insisting that he doesn’t have any new updates on the forward.

Wenger’s Gunners wrapped up their visit to China with a disappointing 2-0 defeat to Premier League champions Manchester City yesterday but as they prepared for a return, the boss was once again confronted with questions over the status of his captain.

Van Persie did not travel with the team to Asia and as he enters the final year of a contract he has already refused to extend, there is no clarity yet as to whether he will remain at Arsenal during the 2012-13 campaign.

With the Gunners repeatedly refusing the idea of letting last season’s leading scorer leave for cheap, pressure is mounting on them to find a quality solution but for now, Wenger is focused on preparing for next season, particularly after bolstering his attack with Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud over the summer.

“We could come back forever on Van Persie. We have our main strikers at home and Van Persie is one of them. But we have Podolski and Giroud who are at home, so we have plenty of strikers,” Wenger asserted about a front line that also includes unsettled trio Park Chu-Young, Nicklas Bendtner, and Marouane Chamakh.

The manager added: “For us at the moment, it is [important] to prepare for the season – it is more than any individual player.”

A potential sale of RvP can allow Wenger to pursue worthy replacements such as Napoli’s Edinson Cavani, Borussia Dortmund’s Robert Lewandowski, and Schalke’s Klaas Jan Huntelaar.