Pires: My future in Arsene's hands

Robert Pires heads into today’s FA Cup final showdown against Manchester United with his Arsenal future still very much undecided.

The French World Cup winner has stressed he does not want to leave the club when his current deal expires in the summer of 2006, just before Arsenal are due to move to their new Emirates Stadium.

The midfielder, however, may have to agree to a short-term contract, given that he is now 31, and the club’s policy is to offer at most two years – and possibly a one-year rolling deal – to any player in his 30s.

Pires, though, maintains there are other teams who would be interested in signing him should he not be able to reach an agreement with Arsenal.

“I have one more year left on my contract, but there has been contact from other clubs,” the Frenchman revealed.

“I gave my position to Arsenal. I would like to sign for two or three years, but it is not for me to decide but [manager] Arsene Wenger and [vice-chairman] David Dein. They will let me know after the cup final.

“You never know in football why they are reluctant and you never know what could happen. Maybe the manager is not the only one who decides. At the moment the offer is for one more year to 2007.”

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger is, though, likely to want to keep Pires at the club, albeit under the right terms, as he forms part of the French backbone to the side, along with Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira.

But Wenger also knows he must strengthen the squad this summer to look to remain competitive with Chelsea, who romped to the Barclays Premiership title this season.

The likes of Manchester City winger Shaun Wright-Phillips and England captain David Beckham are just two of the names linked with possible switches to north-London.

“It is a good thing there is a third team to try to win the league because before it was just Man United and Arsenal – maybe now the chairman will want to invest in more players,” reflected Pires, who signed from Marseille for £6m (€8.7m) in July 2000.

“We have a lot of good young players, but in the Champions League we need to buy more players with more experience.”

There is no love lost between Manchester United and Arsenal, and each of their previous meetings this season have not been without controversy.

Pires, however, insists all that is now in the past.

“In the game we just had [United won 4-2 at Highbury], they were just better than us,” he said.

“But the first game at Old Trafford deserved to finish a 0-0 draw. Television showed that it was not a penalty and after that we had trouble to deal with that defeat. It was difficult to accept and after the game we were angry at how we lost because we were upset at how it finished.”

However, Pires insisted: “Now it is finished and there is no bitterness because we have to think about next season.”

The Arsenal midfielder is, however, expecting a tough encounter at the Millennium Stadium this afternoon.

“There is big rivalry between the clubs, but this is the FA Cup final so hopefully it will be a very good football game,” he said.

"All the games against United are very tough, really hard. I do not agree we are vulnerable physically because we showed in the Blackburn [FA Cup semi-final] game for example because we were kicked a lot and there was a lot of provocation, but we stayed calm.”