Arsenal Transfer News: Arsenal Must Make Every Effort to Retain Robin Van Persie

As Arsenal prepare to revamp their salary structure, priority No. 1 should be finding a way to keep captain Robin van Persie.

According to the Agence France-Press, Arsenal are preparing to talk to him on Tuesday about extending his contract past its expiration date in 2013.

Keeping him won't be easy, however, as he's expected to draw attention from plenty of other clubs with the funds to offer him a deal far more lucrative than anything Arsenal might be able to provide.

Manchester City, in particular, could be a threat, because they will likely be able to far exceed Arsenal's offerings, given their wage scale.

As City prepares to offer Van Persie anything and everything it takes to persuade him to jump ship—according to The Telegraph, he is City manager Roberto Mancini's prime target—Arsenal must be readily prepared to fight to hold on to their captain.

Van Persie sent panic through the Arsenal fanbase in the season finale when he came out for one final curtain call, as though he was bidding farewell—but hopefully, the fans won't have to watch him walk away just yet. 

According to the AFP, Arsenal have prepared a three-year offer worth a weekly salary of about £130,000, plus a £5 million signing bonus, which will be presented to Van Persie on Wednesday.

By all indications, it could be enough, given the captain's desire to stick around in London after helping Arsenal rebound throughout the course of a very trying season. Van Persie recently told the AFP: 

"

It is incredible. We had to dig deep and come back on a couple of occasions where we were having a hard time. At the start of the season, we had a very difficult period, but we bounced back very well from that. 

"

On top of that, Van Persie's wife recently told a Dutch magazine that she would prefer that her family stay in London, which has been their home for eight years. She told Heroes, "As a family, we love it here. We don't want to upset things at home either."

It's clear that Van Persie, the league's top scorer, is the centerpiece of this team, and just as Arsenal needed him to spearhead any sort of comeback this season, they're going to need him to do the same for many years to come. 

There's a reason a player with his talent is going to get insane offers from a plethora of teams, and it's because he deserves them. Van Persie clearly wants to stay; now, Arsenal must simply meet him halfway.

If they fall short, they are always going to regret it.