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Robin Van Persie

ARSENAL fans have blasted Ivan Gazidis for claiming finishing outside the top four would NOT hurt the club.

The Gunners chief executive insisted missing out on the Champions League would make virtually no difference to keeping stars like 29-goal striker Robin van Persie.

Gazidis said: "There are very few clubs in the world that you would go to ahead of Arsenal in terms of consistently being there.

"I don't see that adversely impacting on our ability to attract players or retain the top players that we have."

But his claims on the day Arsenal revealed a pre-tax profit of almost £50million for the six months to November sparked outrage among supporters.

Mike Barnett, spokesman for the fans' group 'Arsenal FC, not PLC', rapped: "That is a ridiculous thing for Ivan to have said.

"In the past few years we have qualified for the Champions League and our best players have still left, so how can we expect to keep them if we aren't in the Champions League?

GAZ LEAK ... Ivan claimed 5th is OK"The likes of Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri, even Thierry Henry in 2007, all left in part because they wanted to win trophies and didn't think they could do that with us.

"For us the Champions League is the be-all and end-all — we run a tight ship financially and losing out on £40m of Champions League money would mean we can't attract the best players.

"Van Persie won't be at Arsenal if we aren't in the Champions League next season, unless he sees we are investing heavily in top-quality players.

"Ultimately, ambition has to come from the top down and this sort of statement doesn't help."

But Gazidis insisted: "It's important to acknowledge the most important thing for this football club is how we do on the pitch.

"We have a healthy cash balance of £115m for the half year. But not all that money is available to invest in transfers.

"The results when some clubs live outside their means can be disastrous."

Arsenal lost £6.1m in the same six-month period in 2010.

Cesc Fabregas' move to Barcelona and Samir Nasri's Manchester City switch for £54m combined boosted profits this time.

Arsene Wenger's side hold the fourth Champions League spot after Sunday's 5-2 win over Tottenham.