Arsenal striker Robin van Persie
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is growing understandably tired of speculation linking club captain and striker Robin van Persie with an exit from the Emirates Reuters

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is growing understandably tired of speculation linking club captain and striker Robin van Persie with an exit from the Emirates. Wenger is presently with the Arsenal first team on their pre-season tour of Asia and has hit out at the media for harping on the van Persie issue.

"At the moment I must say that the Van Persie case has not crossed too much my mind," Wenger said, adding, "We have no offers, so he is our player. That is it. We have not had any more contact from City or United about him at all."

"I have talked about that, I am not talking about that anymore. Do you understand? We must prepare for the season. It is about more than one player," the Frenchman added.

Robin van Persie, a Dutch international, is in the last year of his contract with the Gunners and has been at the centre of a transfer storm this summer, with reports linking him constantly to Manchester United and Manchester City, as well as Italian champions Juventus. The latest reports, however, indicate that Juventus may be pulling out of the race, citing Arsenal's reluctance to sell the striker as the reason.

"A top player is not only judged by how much he costs," club director Giuseppe Marotta explained to Goal.com, "It can also mean a player who costs less but on the pitch shows an absolute value .Van Persie is a great player but Arsenal do not intend to lose him.And you cannot indulge in a player if the owners don't want [to sell]. Talk of our real interest in him seems excessive to me."

Meanwhile, United have already had several bids rejected by the Gunners and City are desperately looking to offload fringe players to free up space and money before launching their own bids.

Arsenal have completed two games on their pre-season tour of Asia - against a Malaysia XI and Manchester City - and will play Hong Kong club Kitchee FC on Sunday. They will also play a friendly with Bundesliga side FC Koln, on 12 August, as part of the deal brining German striker Lukas Podolski to the Emirates.

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