Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood admits that Robin van Persie will quit the club if he wants big money.
Chairman says captain will leave if he wants big money
Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood admits that Robin van Persie will quit the club if he wants big money.
The Gunners captain and talisman has just a year left on his current deal and he is in talks about an extension.
But a host of clubs from across the continent are showing an interest with the likes of Manchester City and Manchester United strongly linked in England.
And Hill-Wood admits that if money is the deciding factor then their captain will most likely leave.
"He is vital to us and has been an extremely good captain," said Hill-Wood in
the Sunday Mirror.
"But if somebody comes along and offers Robin £250,000 a week then I am afraid we cannot compete with that.
"With players, you never know what they are going to do.
Loyalty
"Some players say they want silverware but when they have the chance to earn extraordinary money that has been pumped into the game, then you just have to hope they will stay because they are happy and loyal where they are.
"There are players like Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes at Manchester United who have been loyal to one club but players like that are few and far between.
"Hopefully we can reach agreement with Robin and ideally he will extend his contract.
"We have already brought in one new player in Lukas Podolski and I believe we will bring in more. I am confident we will, in fact.
"I just hope that Robin will be with us next season because I genuinely feel we can make a real challenge for the Premier League title.
"We had an atrocious start to last season but we recovered to finish third which was a marvellous achievement when you look at the problems that we had with injuries."
