Arsenal: Ivan Gazidis Tells Robin Van Persie He Cannot Leave Club Until 2013

Goal.com are reporting that Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis has "personally intervened" in the club's contract negotiations with captain Robin van Persie, out of contract in summer 2013, telling the Dutchman he cannot leave on a transfer this summer.

Speaking with an unnamed source close to the situation, the site learned Gazidis feels he's in a far stronger bargaining situation with van Persie than Arsenal had been with Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri (Manchester City), two players who left the club last year.

Both Fabregas and Nasri were under 25 years old at the time.

Van Persie will be 29 by the start of the 2012-13 season, and 30 when his contract ends, making any team looking to acquire his services this summer (Real Madrid, Barcelona and Manchester City have all been linked with making a move for him) likely unwilling to break the bank and provide him with a long-term deal, the source noted.

The source listed £20 million as a likely price for van Persie were he to be sold this summer, a rate that Arsenal do not feel reflects his quality and would apparently not accept.

At 24, Nasri was sold to Manchester City for £25 million this past summer. His contract had been set to expire this summer.

Fabregas was sold for £29 million last August, although the fee could rise to £34 million eventually. Fabregas' contract had run until 2014.

While extenuating circumstances may have contributed to those transfer fees—Nasri was not sold until a week before the summer transfer window closed, and Fabregas had endured nearly a year of incessant tampering from Barcelona before a deal was finally reached—they are not far from that reported £20 million.

Yet Arsenal are determined not to let lightning strike thrice with van Persie this summer, and are even willing to let him go on a free transfer in 2013, so determined are they to keep him. Arsenal have come under fire in recent years for not being able to hold onto their star players.

The Goal.com source described Gazidis' hard line as leaving van Persie "anxious" about his future.

Yet with the news this week focusing on possible contract negotiations between the club and van Persie, this revelation does lend a sense of closure to the proceedings—at least for the time being.

Interestingly enough, in the summer of 2000, Real Madrid smashed the previous transfer fee record to acquire Barcelona midfielder Luis Figo—then 29 himself—for £37 million. One summer later, the Spanish giants set the record once more to sign a 29-year-old Zinedine Zidane from Juventus for £50 million.

Would they break the bank for van Persie? Come summer, he will be the same age as Figo and Zidane when they were brought to the Bernabeu, after all.

Yet it appears that Gazidis won't allow that possibility.

Van Persie will be staying at Arsenal for the 2012-13 season.

What happens after that is anyone's guess.