Arsene Wenger is clever to play hard-ball with Bordeaux over Marouane Chamakh
Published 13:26 05/08/09 By By Darren Lewis
The Bordeaux chairman Jean-Louis Triaud, is stuck between a rock and a hard place.
His star striker, Marouane Chamakh, has just a year left on his contract and wants to leave.
His manager, Laurent Blanc, doesn't want to sell the forward to Sunderland, believing the Black Cats not to be big enough a club to lose his player to. Arsenal, maintains Blanc, are the only club to which he will surrender his man.
Yet canny Arsene Wenger is refusing to up his bid for Chamakh from the £5million he has already offered. Triaud wants three times that much, if you will.
Wenger's reasoning is that, in five months' time Chamakh will be able to speak to any club he likes. Which means Bordeaux will lose him for nothing.
Cue some furious backtracking from Triaud: "I am an admirer of Marouane's qualities and that is why I set the price so high," he told Sky Sports.com today.
"I will admit that the fee I quoted is excessive, but Arsenal's offer is still a long way short. I won't say that I will hold out for €18million, but Bordeaux need to benefit from this deal as well."
Somehow, I don't think they will.
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