Wiltord contemplates life after Arsenal

Sylvain Wiltord is still locked in contract talks with Arsenal but now admits he is considering a move in the summer.

Wiltord, whose contract expires after the season ends, is still in discussions with the Highbury club but no deal has yet been reached.

"The ideal would be to stay here because it is rare to find such a good set-up," Wiltord told L'Equipe. "But before I was saying 'Arsenal, Arsenal, Arsenal'. Now I am saying that maybe there is life after Arsenal.

"Under the new rules I am already free to sign a pre-contract with another club for next season. There have been calls but I prefer to finish my contract and then make my choice."

Asked about the progress of his talks with Arsenal, Wiltord revealed he wanted a four-year deal while the club was offering only two years.

"My first wish is to stay here," he said. "The talks about extending my deal have not ended.

"I wanted four more years and they were offering two. I thought we would split the difference and agree three years but nothing has happened.

"I will speak with the coach about it."

Wiltord has been persistently linked with Paris St Germain but will not move to PSG during the transfer window because Kanu is on African Nations Cup duty with Nigeria.

But he told L'Equipe: "Everyone knows I would like to play for PSG at some stage in my career."

Wiltord, 29, first emerged with Rennes where he struck up a good partnership with Stephane Guivarc'h but his real breakthrough year came in 1998-9 when he was Ligue 1's top scorer with 22 goals as Bordeaux won the title.

That got him a call-up for France and he has scored 20 goals in 59 matches for Les Bleus, most notably the injury-time equaliser against Italy in the Euro 2000 final.