Published: Today at 00:44
ARSENE WENGER insists Arsenal are an “ambitious” club — but admits Robin van Persie could be sold before August 18.
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The Gunners boss, who arrived in Malaysia yesterday for a three-game tour, has told chief executive Ivan Gazidis he wants the skipper’s future resolved by the time his side face Sunderland in their Premier League opener.
Wenger is desperate to avoid a repeat of last season’s saga with both Samir Nasri and Cesc Fabregas, although Manchester City, Manchester United and Juventus are nowhere near meeting the £20million-plus valuation of Van Persie.
The Frenchman, whose first game of the Far East tour is against a Malaysia XI tomorrow, said: “We are very, very ambitious. You know that.
"Not only very ambitious but also very proud of the way we run our club.
“Van Persie is a world-class striker and I am a big supporter of him. I have supported him throughout.
"He has one year left and is in demand but our desire is to keep him.
"However, we will do what is in best interest of the club. If you have a decoder in your head you can decode that.
“The official transfer deadline is August 31 but then we can create an internal deadline.”
Asked if that was before the start of the season, Wenger added: “Of course. I believe the transfer market should stop before the season starts anyway.
“But the situation is not the same as last season because we have a squad that is solid and used to playing together.
"We have bought two strikers in Olivier Giroud and Lukas Podolski.
“The seriousness of last year’s situation was made difficult for us by injuries, not only through the transfer market.”
Wenger also took a swipe at Van Persie’s agent, Kees Vos, after the player issued a statement that he would not be signing a new deal with Arsenal.
He said: “I wouldn’t like to comment too much on that situation because you’re not always sure that it’s Van Persie’s statement, you know.”
City have indicated they are willing to pay £15m for the striker, with United and Juventus having made lower offers.
Ironically, Arsenal face the Premier League champions in Beijing on Friday before a game in Hong Kong in seven days.
Van Persie, 28, has remained in London to train with new arrivals Podolski and Giroud, along with Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny who also featured at Euro 2012.
Meanwhile, Wenger also remains hopeful of sorting out the future of Theo Walcott.
Like Van Persie, Walcott also has one year left on his current deal at the Emirates.
And Wenger said: “The contractual situation is the same. They both have one year and the selection of the tour is not linked to that.
“We will see. We sort these situations out always in the best interests of the club.
"We have plenty of young players and you see Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain here.
"We have plenty of young players. We bought Walcott when he was young and we want to keep our players. We always want to keep them.”
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