London, Oct 1 (IANS): Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has told Manchester City not to entertain any hopes of signing his captain Robin van Persie to get rid of Carlos Tevez who refused to come off the bench as substitute in their Champions League game against Bayern Munich.
Wenger made it clear that Van Persie has two more years to go and he will not be sold.
City are thinking of signing a striker in January in place of suspended Tevez and they are keenly looking at Van Persie, realising the Dutch international is in no hurry to negotiate a fresh contract with Arsenal, reports the Guardian.
Wenger is no great fan of City who he thinks have used the petrodollars of Abu Dhabi in their pursuit of silverware and had a brush with them when he felt they had enticed his midfielder Samir Nasri before buying him for 24 million pounds. Nasri was the fourth player to move to City from Arsenal after Emmanuel Adebayor, Kolo Toure and Gaël Clichy. Now Wenger is livid with their move to grab Van Persie.
"Anybody who wants to sign one of our players … everybody has my phone number and can call me," he said.
"I never said I was unhappy with Man City but I don't know why we speak about transfers. I will never answer any more. Robin is under contract until 2013. This is a story created to create a story. There is no truth in it. Why should we sell players in January? Man City already have problems because they have too many strikers, they pay half of the league for them to play away somewhere. Why should they want to buy strikers? It is very difficult to understand."
Wenger feels City should not subsidise their players' wages while they are on loan at other Premier League clubs, giving them an unfair hold over the competition.
He said he would be really unhappy if Adebayor, who is on loan at Tottenham, made a decisive contribution to the derby Sunday when they play Arsenal.
"I know the salary of Adebayor," Wenger said. "I don't know who pays it but somebody must pay it. I don't agree with the rules but my job is to adapt to the rules. If the Premier League wants my opinion, I will give them my opinion with pleasure."