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Van Persie buys into Wenger's Arsenal
Project on £80,000-a-week deal
Rob Draper
Daily
Mail
Monday 17 November 2008
Robin van Persie is poised to give
Arsene Wenger a boost this week by signing an £80,000-a-week,
five-year contract, while Theo Walcott is also discussing
a new long-term £60,000-a-week deal.
Van Persie is expected to sign next week on his return
from international duty with Holland. All the key details
are agreed and his commitment to the club is likely
to help alleviate doubts over the future of the team,
which looked like it was starting to fall apart at the
end of last season. Although Arsenal insiders still fear Emmanuel Adebayor
could yet leave at the end of the season, after agitating
for a move all last summer, manager Wenger is planning
to build his attacking options around Walcott, Van Persie
and Cesc Fabregas.
Van Persie’s decision is
significant as he is now 25, considered one of the senior
players in the team and is committing the best years
of his career to Wenger’s project.
Only last month, the Dutchman said: ‘I hope to
win trophies in my life sooner rather than later. I
can’t wait my whole life. I can’t say, “Well,
OK, next year”. There has to be an end to that. 'The best-case scenario would be that I play the rest
of my career here, renew my contract over and over again
and win trophies, but you never know what may happen
in football.’ Van Persie was one of the players upset at the departure
of Mathieu Flamini and Alexander Hleb, but talks over
the past month convinced him that Wenger’s team
are on the verge of great things. Walcott is in talks to extend by four years a deal
which runs out in 2010. Wenger’s only fear is the
potential departure of Adebayor, with Real Madrid searching
for a replacement for the injured Ruud van Nistelrooy,
and the infamous new FIFA rule, Article 17, which could
yet undermine Fabregas’s future at the club.
Under the regulations, Fabregas
would be able to buy himself out of his contract in
January 2010, having served three years of a deal signed
in 2006.
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