Arsenal Transfer Rumors: Arsene Wenger Must Convince Robin Van Persie to Stay

For Gunners fans, that's the most obvious headline ever written.

But the opportunity for Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger to convince Robin van Persie to stay should come sooner than later, as he is expected to contact his star striker this week, according to Sami Mokbel of the Daily Mail:

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Van Persie remains on holiday after Holland's early exit from Euro 2012, but Sportsmail understands the Gunners skipper is expected to speak to his manager over the phone in the next few days.

Wenger wants to have a one-on-one conversation with his captain without the influence of the player's advisors.

The talks are likely to prove pivotal in establishing whether Van Persie still has a long-term future with Arsenal.

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I shouldn't need to list van Persie's statistics from last season or reiterate just how important he is to Arsenal's success. If you aren't already aware of what he accomplished this year, you either aren't a soccer fan, you've lived under a rock for the past year or the following applies to you:

And that's just not nice.

Certainly, van Persie will have more help in the goalscoring department next year if he sticks around. The additions of forwards Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud has made the Arsenal attack much more potent next season.

If van Persie and Theo Walcott stay at the Emirates, those four along with Gervinho could give the Gunners a nice rotation of five players at the winger and striker positions.

The team could still use a true holding midfielder and some defensive depth, but might be able to simply outscore teams with those attacking players.

I've long believed that van Persie would stay with the Gunners. He's had fantastic success with the north London side, the team has stuck with him through his struggles and Arsenal are consistently one of the top clubs in Europe.

If you are already in a good situation and your team has shown they want to improve, why leave?

Hopefully, that's exactly what Wenger will emphasize when he speaks to van Persie. Hopefully, he'll remind him that he shouldn't ditch a good thing.

In the meantime, Gunners fans will continue to pray for van Persie's return.

Hit me up on Twitter—my tweets want Dwight Howard to just get traded already, too.