Vermaelen determined to leave Arsenal before start of Premier League season
|Arsenal captain Thomas Vermaelen has told manager Arsene Wenger that he wants to leave the club before the new Premier League season begins.
The 28-year-old has been the subject of speculation all summer with the Belgian international defender entering the final year of his contract at Emirates Stadium.
Manchester United and Barcelona have both shown serious interest in the centre-back, but it is the latter who Arsenal are more ‘open’ to doing business with.
Gunners boss Arsene Wenger believes that selling one of his best defenders to a Premier League rival could come back to bite him and Catalan giants Barca would prove less of a ‘risky’ deal.
Wenger has confirmed in the past week that Vermaelen is unlikely to stay in north London as he could not guarantee him first-team football and the player himself has expressed a desire to leave before the new Premier League season begins in a fortnight’s time.
Vermaelen, who joined Arsenal from Ajax in 2009, started just seven Premier League games last season with Wenger preferring the successful centre-back pairing of Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker instead.
The £10m-rated defender’s likely departure means that Arsenal are on the look out for a stopper who is also able to play in defensive midfield.
William Carvalho and Sami Khedira remain the prime targets for French tactician Wenger.
Arsene Wenger should start getting tough on our players who want to go and play for our rivals only to get ther and abuse us. If Vermaelen wants to move abroad, he could be considererd but definitely Manchester United again. There is a conspiracy among the top English clubs not to sell players to arsenal while arsenal continue to sell thier captains to rivals. Arsene Wenger should know by now that the fans are not happy about this trend. If Vermaelen insists on staying in England, he should be made to see out his contract and join any club, like Sagna did.