Ramsey hopes Van Persie stays

Aaron Ramsey is hoping team-mate Robin van Persie will stay at Arsenal this summer

Aaron Ramsey is staying hopeful that Arsenal captain Robin van Persie will decide to stick with the club and resist the temptation to leave.

Van Persie's future at the Emirates Stadium is uncertain after he confirmed earlier this month that he would not be signing an extension to his contract, which expires next year.

Manchester United have already confirmed an interest in signing the striker, while Manchester City and Juventus are also understood to have made bids for the Dutchman.

Arsene Wenger expressed his desire to keep hold of Van Persie on Saturday after the 28-year-old was not included on the Gunners' pre-season trip to Asia.

Ramsey is also keen to see his team-mate stick around in North London, particularly after Van Persie scored 37 goals for Arsenal in all competitions last season.

"He had a brilliant season last year and he is a big player for us, so we are just hopeful that he will stay."
Aaron Ramsey Quotes of the week

Brilliant

"We don't know anything that goes on," said the Wales midfielder. "We hope that he stays at Arsenal.

"He had a brilliant season last year and he is a big player for us, so we are just hopeful that he will stay."

Van Persie's sparkling form helped the Gunners to stage a fightback after a poor start to the season which saw them win just two of their first seven league games, a run which included an 8-2 drubbing at Manchester United and a derby defeat at Tottenham.

However, they rallied to such an extent that they eventually ended the campaign in third place and secured a Champions League qualification berth which at one point looked beyond them.

Nevertheless, the Gunners, who have added Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud to the squad during the summer, still finished 19 points behind the two Manchester clubs, and Ramsey is convinced a better start this time around could help them to close that gap.

He said: "If we get off to a better start this season than we did last season, we know we are capable of finishing pretty strongly, like we did last year.

"We have brought in a couple of players who are well known and hopefully we can put ourselves in a position to compete early on."