Alexander Hleb 'to leave Arsenal' as Emirates exodus continues

13 April 2012

Alexander Hleb's agent today claimed the midfielder will become the second high-profile player to leave Arsenal this summer.

Gunners boss Arsene Wenger has already had to deal with Mathieu Flamini agreeing to join AC Milan when his Arsenal contract expires at the end of June, and now Hleb's agent Nikolai Shpilevski claims his client will also be going at the end of the season.

Scroll down for more

Running off: Alexander Hleb (left) is believed to be heading for the Emirates exit

He told Belarussian paper Pressball: "Alexander is preparing to make the most important moves of his life.

"He is leaving Arsenal even though they want to offer him a new long-term contract and better conditions. Only time will tell if leaving is the right decision, but there's no way back now. Everything will be cleared up in the next two weeks."

However, Wenger insists there is "nothing" in the reports Hleb is set to quit the club.

Asked if there had been any developments, Wenger said: "Frankly, no.

"You cannot stop people talking but at the moment there is nothing (to discuss).

"I believe that usually all the players want to stay, and I expect this team to say 'let's make a pact together, come back next year and win'.

"That's what I expect them to do and my priority is to keep the team together, add what I think can help us to even be better and then see from there."

Hleb joined Arsenal from German club Stuttgart in the summer of 2005 and has so far made 89 league appearances, scoring seven goals.

He was linked with Inter Milan earlier in the season - much to the fury of boss Wenger - and now seems likely to join Flamini in Italy.

With Real Madrid openly courting Cesc Fabregas yet again, this could be a worrying summer for Wenger.

Meanwhile Emmanuel Adebayor wants a pay rise in line with what stars at Chelsea and Manchester United are earning.

The striker is currently paid £35,000 a week but wants that doubled if he is to stay. But the club are reluctant to break their wage structure.

They did it for Thierry Henry in 2006 in order to keep him after the Champions League defeat - but do not want to do so again.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in