If the club manage to get him to sign a new contract i think it would make a good statement of intent, even if it goes against the clubs wishes, one player earning the sort of wage a player of his caliber should be earning to me would make a huge statement to the rest of the league.
I personally cant see him signing a new deal if we dont make Champions league, but if we dont make Champions league then we must sell him abroad weather or not he wants to play at gunners or United, rather him left for barca for 1 million than him going to United for 50 million, plus the board can turn around after the sale and stick two fingers up at the top 6 and say they will not sell any more players to them.
I know it dont make financial sense to take a lower fee, but if these top clubs stop unsettling are players any way then they would not want to move full stop, also it would be nice to build on the team than to keep replacing want away players year in year out, cause in due time we will not be able to find a decent replacement and it could be the reason we go from a top 10 club back down to fighting relegation or even worse we could end up back in the Championship with 99 % of the team wanting to leave for Premiership football instead.
NO MORE PLAYER SALES TO OTHER PREMIERSHIP CLUBS ( Only ones below us in the league of course / not Challenging for Europe )