Arsene Wenger has revealed that he would much rather have sold Robin van Persie to big-spending Paris Saint Germain and wanted to avoid strengthening a Premier League rival at all costs.

While the boss doesn’t actually confirm whether the Ligue 1 side, who have signed the likes of Thiago Silva and Zlatan Ibrahimovic this summer, bid for Van Persie it does seem a strange thing to bring up if there wasn’t any interest.

Speaking to French station TF1, Wenger was asked where he wanted to sell his captain and responded, “Abroad, to PSG.”

“We wanted to avoid at all costs [selling to an English team], but we had no choice.”

Recognising that new boys Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud have a tough job filling Van Persie’s goal scoring boots, the boss continued:

“It will be a difficult challenge to meet. He [Van Persie] scored ​​30 goals last season. It’s almost one per game.

“When Van Persie is there, his is the first name you put down to score. Others have to seize their chance.”

One player who definitely won’t be taking over the responsibility of leading the line at the Emirates is Nicklas Bendtner.

Asked by Danish press whether the Dutchman’s departure could see him remain at Arsenal, the lanky striker made clear he couldn’t give two hoots about the news.

“It doesn’t affect me. Even if all Arsenal’s strikers left it wouldn’t affect me. I’m going anyway.”

Arseblog News doesn’t have much of a problem with Nick’s words, but blimey we do wish he’d hurry up and piss off so we can spend the £500,000 we’ll get from his sale.

_________

Thanks to @RYO_cleverfish for the heads up.