Wenger urged to smash record

London: Robin van Persie has urged Arsene Wenger to spend like never before and eliminate the prospect of Arsenal being left behind by their top-four rivals.

Wenger is under no illusions regarding his squad's desperate need of a facelift ahead of the coming Barclays Premier League campaign but, equally, he is fighting hard to keep key figures Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri at the club.

The Arsenal manager warned yesterday he would rather lose £20 million (Dh116.1 million) and let Nasri run down his contract than cash in on him, while he is hopeful of convincing Fabregas to ignore Barcelona's advances.

Van Persie is desperate for ‘my two friends' to remain at the Emirates but, equally, he wants to see Wenger pursue an aggressive transfer policy in the next few weeks and believes it is vital that other clubs do not steal a march on the club.

Different experience

"The way I feel now is that a few signings are more than welcome," said Van Persie, who is looking forward to ‘experiencing something different' tomorrow when Arsenal face a Malaysian side in Kuala Lumpur. "Every other team is buying quality players, so hopefully we will do the same.

"You need investment to keep up. When you look around, you see Manchester City are buying loads of good players, Liverpool are doing it now and Manchester United have been doing it for years.

"In a way, you need to keep that up because if everyone is doing something you need to do it as well. I think it's a good thing that we have competition because no one really wants to go to sleep. In an ideal world, no one [should be] really sure of his place [in the team]. Maybe the captain and the goalkeeper but all the other players shouldn't really know before that they will play. It's always good to have competition and be on your toes."

New striker

Wenger, who has already wrapped up a deal for Lille's Ivory Coast striker Gervinho, has baulked at writing big cheques in recent years, but all the signs are pointing to him being bolder now and Van Persie would love to see him smash Arsenal's transfer record. "These days, proper players cost money," said the 27-year-old striker. "Sometimes you see players go for loads of money and you think, is he that good? They are, most of the time, but sometimes there can be a statement for the others as well.

"The main thing is, it is not just a label, a multi-million pound signing. It's about the quality. If you buy a player who has got one year left, normally he's not going to be worth 40 or 50 million, he'll be a bit less." Nasri is in such a situation at present, but Wenger is not entertaining the idea of losing both the France player and midfield maestro Fabregas in the coming weeks.