Wenger: Arsenal had no choice but to sell RvP
Reuters - Friday 17 August 2012, 12:23
Robin van Persie wanted
to leave Arsenal and left the club with no choice but to sell
him, manager Arsene Wenger said on Friday after the Dutch
international joined Manchester United.
Last season's Premier League top scorer signed a four-year
deal at Old Trafford, ending an eight-year stay with Arsenal for
whom he scored 132 goals in 278 appearances.
"We regret that we have lost a great player and for one
simple reason - he only had one year left on his contract. He
wanted to go," Wenger told a news conference on Friday.
"We anticipated this situation might happen, therefore we
bought Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud.
"[Selling to a rival] is not what we wanted but there was
not much choice. We had only one club really interested at the
level we thought would be acceptable and that was Manchester
United.
"At the end of the day, was the only decision we
could make."
British media reported the deal to be worth £24 million and Wenger said Arsenal had already
"invested the money" with the signings of Spain international
midfielder Santi Cazorla from Malaga, German international
winger Podolski from Cologne and France striker Giroud from
Ligue 1 champions Montpellier.
"If needed we will invest more, but if you look at the
number of players we have, we have a massive squad. We have
plenty of players who have no chance to play at all.
"At the moment I believe we have what is needed to be
ambitious and to play our game."
Arsenal, third in the league last season - 19 points behind
the Manchester clubs - begin their campaign with a home clash
against Sunderland on Saturday.
Winger Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (ankle) and defender Laurent
Koscielny (calf) miss the game through injury, but forward Theo Walcott, who
pulled out of England's friendly with Italy in midweek because
of a bruised thigh, has recovered.
Defender Thomas Vermaelen will replace Van Persie as Arsenal
captain.