So we finally had some news about where we are with regards to the club’s contract negotiations for RvP. Van Persie said: “I’ve thought long and hard about it, but I have decided not to extend my contract.”
Well, that is fine with me, I can live with that. We would all rather hear him say he has agreed to sign a new contract and is committed etc, etc, but at his age and the sort of wages on offer, it is not inconceivable to image him wanting to finish his career somewhere else.
But where was his follow-up sentence that should go like this: “However, of course I will honour my contract with Arsenal and give my all in my last season, and as a captain I will try to lead this fantastic club to a title or a cup”.
Don’t we – the fans, the club, and his fellow players – deserve that after all we have given to him?
Nothing of the sort – instead he said dryly, after some sentimental, hypocritical nonsense about how much he has loved the club over the last eight years: “As soon as Mr Gazidis is back from his two-week holiday in America further meetings will follow and I will update you if and when there are more developments.”
This, in my opinion, can only be explained in one way: he wants out as soon as possible and has actually found a club – but the prospective buyer and Arsenal are either miles apart on what the price should be, or Arsenal has indeed no intention whatsoever to sell him.
Van Persie’s announcement yesterday smells of desperation. It has all the hallmarks of somebody who is anxious to get out and is getting very impatient because nothing is happening, and a deal might fall through or not happen at all. He appears to be trying to force the issue, and is using the fans as a medium of communication to achieve his personal objectives. This will backfire badly on him.
He has used the classical excuse of accusing the club of not having the same ambitions as he has: “Out of my huge respect for Mr Wenger, the players and the fans I don’t want to go into any details, but unfortunately in this meeting it has again become clear to me that we in many aspects disagree on the way Arsenal FC should move forward.”
What really gets me is his “that we in many aspects disagree”. Being Dutch myself, I know very well the Dutch obsession with being involved in management decision, a strong need for being heard, for consensus, for being empowered. But disagreeing on many aspects is a ridiculous thing to say. It smacks of somebody who thinks he has become bigger than the club, and who has lost his respect for the man who made him what he is today. It also looks like he is making sure there is no easy way back from this.
The gloves have come off and the negotiations will be getting very tough now – and it comes as no surprise that Arsenal Football Club have responded by playing hard ball: “We have to respect Robin’s decision not to renew his contract. Robin has one year to run on his current contract and we are confident that he will fulfill his commitments to the Club. We are planning with ambition and confidence for next season with Arsenal’s best interests in mind.”
Some will say, he is playing hard ball with Gazidis and Kroenke to force them to buy the super quality players Robin seems to want at our beloved club. Some will even argue that Wenger is in this together with RvP. But I am not having any of that. Even he would know that this is not the way to achieve such a goal.
Van Persie has turned his back towards the club and is simply leaving us in the lurch just when we needed our captain and best player most. And this hurts like hell, and is something this Gooner really did not see coming at all.
Here is a man we have carried for large parts of his eight years at the club, whilst he was nursing one injury after another.
Here is a man around whom we build a team to service him; to make him look like a world beater.
Here is a man for whom the team gave everything, and made him England’s Footballer of the Year.
Here is a man who was made our captain only a season ago.
Here is a man, who says how much he loves the club – that he has become a Gunner For Life.
Here is a man whom Arsène took under his wing and helped develop into a decent, well-rounded human being, and who said today about himself: “I have grown up and became a man during my time at Arsenal FC”.
One more season was all we needed from him.
One more season to help the new strikers to settle in.
One more season to help The Ox, JW, Ramsey and Gervinho establishing themselves properly within the team.
One more season to simply pay back all that the club and the fans have invested in him.
This has now become impossible. The bridges behind him are well and truly burned.
Robin, you were a legend in the making, a near-hero, almost a Man in Full, but nothing of that is left.
Instead you are now a man no more.
R.I.P. to the man you used to be.
TotalArsenal.
Arsenal News 24/7
arsenalarsenal.net 
Total Arsenal you have my Total Respect.
That sums up very well how I am feeling…..well played sir (in difficult circumstances).
Thanks TA, not many of us wanted the task of trying to make sense of the RvP saga.
Everyone will seek to interpret the situation according to their own slant on how the club is being run.
I am in complete agreement with the first 4 paragraphs. Where I see it slightly differently is in my reading of what caused Robin to release this statement at this particular time.
This is what I think is the most likely pattern of events:
We had already done the deal for Podolski to give us 2 top strikers as our other striking options are dreadful.
They had the pre Euro meeting and RvP was not happy that the club would be investing sufficiently to do anything other than get us 4th place and since he had the same discussion before his last contract was signed he realised that nothing was going to change. Therefore told them categorically that he wouldn’t be signing a new contract = he wanted to leave.
Obviously AW and IG had to accept this decision but asked RvP to give them time to do some deals before any announcement is made.
We signed Giroud and at that point it should have been obvious to everyone that RvP was going.
PHW announces in the press (where was his media lockdown?) that we have had no offers for RvP. Well done again PHW, I don’t know what we’d do without you 😕
AW comes out once again and says he wants RvP to stay.
RvP is confused and annoyed.
Not only is the club up to its usual tricks (RvP’s seen it all before – “I’m 99% sure Henry will stay, I am confident Cesc will stay, we cannot sell Nasri” etc etc) but the end result is that after giving his all last season, the club is toying with him and using him as a pawn and that is disrespectful to the player.
RvP has had enough of the silly games and decides to tell it like it is. Unfortunately although he wants to explain fully to the supporters he realises that if he does, it will reflect badly on AW and he respects him too much to do that. The end result is that his statement causes more confusion and instantly alienates him from the majority of supporters.
RvP must be sold now. His loss will not necessarily affect our chances of success next season, but football is ever changing and we will need to adapt our approach to get the best out of the new players and to cope with the way other teams have progressed.
I ask all you who are down on RvP to remember his face when he scored those vital goals and the adulation of the other players he led so brilliantly – I would also ask you to remember the look on his face in that game when the Ox was subbed ….. said it all
From the tail end of yesterday:
The unnecessary kick was that from RvP about direction, it’s making an excuse when none was needed, we could read between the lines, we could decide it was about money, but he could walk away and be welcomed back as a hero like Thierry, Wrighty or Dennis or even Eduardo. We used to remember our heroes but our heroes never used to talk ill of the club on leaving or when they left.
Rasp, I remember his face when Ox was subbed, so why doesn’t he want to play with Ox this season?
If He’s not committing His future to AFC let him be sold quickly nd Buy a new man cos delay is dangerous. “NO NEED TO CRY OVER A SPLIT MILK “
Has anyone herd Walcott say if RVP does not sign he isn’t going to either?
A fool and bigoted injury prone player!May ur days end in sadness,may ur injuries come back to you in full…Go get the goals with other club if is possible..Stink ass!We beats any team u join God willing!Absurds fools!
Shard,
It is totally irresponsible by the club that RVP’s statement was released, i think we are mostly agreed with that.
As for PHW he may not have been quoted as saying things contrary to Wenger but he definitely says things as Club Chairman over the years that do not sit favourably with the fans and he dismissed kroenke the year before he was elected to the board.he also stated at the start of the season that if we missed out on CL this year that it wouldn’t be the end of the world. IMO he should just step down or at least be told to keep quiet.
(from previous post)
Very well said. It’s important that all gooners stand together now. We’ve been divided over opinions on ownership, wenger, team building, etc but now it’s important to be united.
I agree with the sentiment of this article. When Cesc was on the verge of leaving RVP said something like “Of course you can win titles by playing elsewhere but would that be like winning one here in Arsenal in my team?”
But when the time came for him to decide he too could not resist the move.. Bitter truth is that loyalty, gratitude have become too costly for footballers..
@ GiE
Because he doesn’t believe the club are serious about the quest for honours. When the manager is adored by the players but annualy loses the respect of others by playing games with the media that eventually either make him look foolish or deluded. When the end result is that we lose great players and do not replace them with similar quality, eventually you have to recognise the pattern.
Rocky is one of the brightest most intelligent bloggers I know and yet 2 days ago he said something to the effect that ‘after the debacle with his pronouncements over Cesc and Na$ri last summer, AW would not make the same mistake again’
Nothing changes. We continue to buy players from the middle shelf (£10 – £15m) some of them turn out to be fantastic (TV, kozzer) and others not. Whenever one of our players is recognised as top shelf, they will leave because club loyalty is a thing of the past.
kelsey
I would have thought that at least someone at the club not indulging in spin and coming out with the same PR agent fabrications would be welcome. In any case, I think his statements are twisted more than they are inflammatory. And that is a result of not being PR savvy. He isn’t wrong. In business terms, which is his forte, Arsenal have planned for life without CL. In sporting terms, which is Arsene’s job, he views it as a disaster. Fair enough, no?
The story behind the dismissal of Kroenke is something quite interesting. The normal story goes that Dein brought Kroenke in, and the rest of the board, especially PHW opposed this. (Either because they were opposed to Dein, or because they didn’t want a sugar daddy) But, as I recall, if we look at the history of share trading. Before this incident happened, it was Fiszman who sold Kroenke some shares. I’m not sure we’ll ever understand what really went on, but I don’t think its as simple as is being made out. I’ll be honest, I quite like PHW, and I don’t think anything he’s said has been offensive towards the club.
(also from previous post)
He should either play up to his abilities or rot in the second team. This is a ill disguised attempt to force his sale to another club. We should hold him to his contract as other clubs have done. It may stop this nonsense continuing in the future.
haha
Hi Simon, welcome. Your view is one from th heart that most of us would wish, but the attitude of the club on these matters is very clear – from now on its all bluff and counter bluff to try to get the best price we can for RvP.
Well said mate. The arrogance of his statement was unbelievable. If Walcott wants to go now, then sell him as well. It’s all about who we replace mercenaries with. Gooner my arse, no way near an Arsenal legend. A proper Arsenal legend is Dennis Bergkamp, a man with integrity. RVP can jog on to PSG. Arsenal moves on.
TA – spot on.
It is what it is and football has become what it has become. When the money coming into the game becomes as disparate as it is today I don’t think any of us can be surprised by players sudden desire to “win trophies” which, purely coincidentally you understand, seems to be with teams paying the astronomical wages.
But there is another aspect to this story which can’t be ignored.
The direction of the club, the systematic weakening of the first XI over the last 7 years has given these mercenaries the excuse they need…the mental gymnastics they have to perform for their egos to justify moving from the club that made them, backed them and paid them more than adequately have become as easy as a forward roll!
There are two sides to this story – RvP betraying his true nature, that of “just another football merc”, and that of the club which has given no reason to stay other than to pay back the faith and patience we put in him during his injury-laden early years.
Very interested to see what’s next…
What exactly does ‘future direction’ mean? What in Arsenal’s current strategy is so wrong? As far as I can tell, it’s not being City or Chelsea.
Let’s see. What stops us from winning. Players being tapped up, and deciding that other teams show more ‘ambition’. What ambition does City show beyond paying massive sums of money for players and on their wages? How close were City to not winning anything last season? What guarantees them winning titles any more than Arsenal? Money. Players with ‘ambition’ move for money. If Everton contacted all these players and said, we’ll manage to convince your clubs to release you, but we’ll only be able to pay you 40k a week, but we’ll have a great, star studded, winning team. would even ONE player agree to that? No sireee.. Money = ambition. Everything else, is an icing on the cake.
Ok, what else stops us from winning. Refereeing decisions. 2007-08 we were the best team in the country. All talk of our implosion after Birmingham is neither here nor there. In fact, even Eduardo’s leg break (hardly an isolated incident) also displays refereeing incompetence/bias. Arsenal are allowed to be kicked more than any other club. The rules are different for Arsenal. ANd who knows, maybe that in some part also contributes to players leaving. How many penalties were we denied last year? ManU, despite not having City’s funding, still win because they have the referees helping them . We don’t, despite all our best efforts, because referees harm us. I think its by design, but I’ll let that go because I can’t provide PROOF.
In terms of ambition. I see no club more ambitious than Arsenal. No club has ever contemplated building their own stadium, bringing through a youth team, and work towards building not just a great side, but a great club. Arsenal’s strategy represents the height of ambition. Too ambitious? Perhaps, but that is harder to criticise isn’t it?
I would have like RVP to at least stay loyal to his contract and play along side The Pod and G-Spot for one season. Then he can fully judge the quality of the squad. When AW was rebuilding a top squad, rvp just ruined it. sigh…
Great post. I’ll begin with the last sentence. I would prefer to tweak it slightly to: “RIP to the man you could have been”. He would have been up there with the Henrys, Bergkamps, Adams etc. Sadly he won’t.
He gave up on the fight just after one full season. His arrogant outburst would have been enough to gut Wenger. Ultimate betrayal.
However, he is free to choose his paymaster, I hope he doesn’t expect a rapturous applause upon his return. I wouldn’t boo him, but instead just blank him …”Somebody that we used to know….”
pls mr wenger dnt let vp go
Personally I don’t think anyone should be having a go at RVP, how can anyone blame him, it is really worrying that he didn’t like Wenger & Gazidis’s vision on taking Arsenal forward.
We were promised when we moved to a new stadium that it would make us compete even while we were paying back the debt & as seems to be the way to how they treat us fans, it was more lies.
They lied to us, saying Fabregas & Nasri would stay last year & have done the same with RVP this year.
I will state I am not anti-Wenger & think he does a good job with the little money he seems aloud to spend but I feel it is the Arsenal board that is holding us back, they all seem to care more about lining their own pockets than making us successful.
Just because RVP was injured alot doesn’t mean he owes us, he gave his best on the pitch every game.
If we take off the rose coloured glasses the club are not run correctly they haven’t been showing any ambition for years.
In an era where spending money in football has become more important, what do we do? we buy cheap players & develope them, but by the time they are top players, they want to leave because they want to win things, it just doesn’t work.
I was so hoping I was wrong but as soon as we signed Podolski I thought we were more likely to be buying RVP’s replacement & then when Giroud was signed I thought, Arsenal buying another decent striker means RVP is on his way.
Now RVP is going to go it is up to the board to show their ambition (if they have got some) & give Wenger the money to buy at the very least 2 more top players but don’t hold your breath
Should Arsenal Keep RVP until the End of his Contract http://wp.me/p23rJI-aQ place you votes
Very well said TA. Truly excellent post on a difficult topic.
I’m mostly trying to reconcile how I feel about Arsenal, and compare that to how I feel about my job. Then contrast that with RVPs position…re job and Arsenal.
Bottom line is that I’ll never fully understand the motivations and challenges of playing football for a living.
RVPs comments (and actions to follow??) are very disappointing, but I certainly won’t be calling for him to be shot, or slating him endlessly. But nor am I quite ready to say ‘thanks for the memories’.
I think I’ll just (try to) forget about him for a few days
they all seem to care more about lining their own pockets than making us successful.
@Bryan
How do you reckon that? What do they gain if Arsenal doesn’t spend? They do not draw dividends. So how do you justify that remark? This spend spend spend has made people find fault where there is none, and see the abnormality as the norm.
I hope Arteta is made captain. He’s already shown he loves the club and he’s going nowhere.
very well said TA, he sold us out. Redcore said it well when refering to his statement last year. How can you claim to love the club when you come out with a statement like that. It hurts more than any other departure because as others have stated at least cesc had his DNA, and well Nasri is just an oxygen thief.
As far as I’m concerned RVP is lower than a snake’s belly, and I hope he goes to Man City so Kozzer and Verm can keep him goalless, so the fans can taunt him over and over again, so Verm can run through him (fairly, or I’ll take the hit that he did to Terry), so Szcz can clatter into him during a corner, so that he can lose his starting position, so that everyone else can see him for the scum he is, and most of all so someone can knock his teeth down his throat.
R.I.P RVP you one season wonder! May you rot on the bench and be forgotten forever!
I respect everyone’s opinion and this is really a very emotive subject for the fans.Thanks for an insightful post TA
I go back to my earlier post where I more or less said that one cannot build an interchangeable squad to remain in the top tier if every season we lose one or two of the main cogs in the team.Some will argue that Nasri only played when he wanted to, but on his day he was good.
Wilshere and sagna will miss the start of th season and no return date for him at the moment.He didn’t play last season and even for one so young he was sorely missed.
Now we may add another one or two players but again they have to bed in, gervinho and Santos will have progressed but will AW change his formation or tactics. It is an incredible job he has done but it is getting harder every year.I hope the FPP really works for our sake.
I don’t go the games anymore but many of the kids want an idol or two at the club,, players they can identify with,but i feel those days are long gone.
A TA special! 🙂
Cannot find much to disagree with in your excellent Post, and you will speak for many others too.
You may not be surprised to learn that I am an atypical fan and simply cannot get exercised by the realization that our ‘heroes’ have clay feet.
RVP is no exception, and he will have convinced himself that what he is doing is the best and most equitable way to achieve his desire for both money and trophies (no doubt aided by his money grubbing agent).
He will, of course, have looked at Nasri and Clichy, for example, and see players who, one year after leaving Arsenal, have achieved just that with the PL title, and they will also have the highest expectations of going on and achieving yet more PL and ECL titles/trophies in the near future, and who can gainsay that?
The emotional outpouring when an event like this occurs, is an understandable and justifiable reaction, as it is a reflection of how much of our lives we invest in supporting our club and, by default, our star players.
The problem with that is it leaves the majority of fans hostages to fortune, because as sure as eggs are eggs, the next fallen hero is coming down the line and the emotional trauma of that, with all the angst it entails, is quite simply inevitable.
I do not buy into that outcome.
We are all human beings, with all the fallibility that encompasses, and the players are only doing what many of us also do in our daily working life, that is to move on to the next better paying or more rewarding job, but thankfully without being exposed to the unblinking eye of television or the outrage generated by being exposed to the full glare of publicity.
There will be other great heroes for us to celebrate and drool over, I just do not see next season being a catastrophe because of yet another fallen idol!
Life goes on, Guys!! 🙂
Hi kelsey, I am in the ‘buy a midfielder and No.2 GK’ category.
Song’s moments of brilliance have been fantastic but he doesn’t pull the strings as consistently in the final third as a proper playmaker would. Such players are expensive and few and far between, but we should be on the lookout if one becomes available.
Morning Red Arse, I hope your health is still improving.
Yes life goes on and we are still in a pretty good position as at least we don’t have to wait to sell RvP to bring in a replacement.
We are currrently in a stronger position than last year – would we be weaker if we lost Theo? …. it depends on how Gervinho and the Ox progress I’d say.
Perfect.
Shard, I hate the spend, spend, spend way but last year we lost 2 top quality players & didnt go out & spend the money on 2 top drawer players, just the same as the year before that & the year before that.
If we are to compete we do have to go out & buy some top level,finished article players now & again.
Each year we apparently have a transfer kitty of about 50M then sell a couple of top players for massive fee’s, lets say another 50M & then we buy 1 or 2 replacements for 10 to 12M – and I know last year we spent more but by the time we did it was far to late we were already playing catch up.
So what are they doing with all the money they get in?
& do you believe the club shows ambition because I’m sorry I really don’t.
you guys are deluded! i am a spurs fan, and in no way do i belive that the spurs players like bale,modric,lennon,BAE,sandro,ect. will stay at spurs if they where given more money by another club. they(players) can talk all about ambition,winning stuff and so on, but in the end off the day it is money, and a lot of money they are offered. why in hell does anybody think that spurs is still stuck with jenas????? he has a great contract with spurs, and no other team is stupid enough to give him same terms. thats why he just stays at spurs and never ever play a game. BAE has said that he plays for money, and not because he loves the game, he want to get rich, and if another club offered him more he would demand a transfer. this he did say on an official spurs site. no loyalty, just money. i feel a bit bad for arsenal, since it is a well run club, that dont give in to this money-train, like city, chelsea,ect. but as long as it is legal to run a club as poorly as a man can, than all clubs will face this if they try to have a good economy. barca, real m,city,chelski. those clubs bully all other clubs, city and chelsea with stupid-over priced biddings. real and especially barca tap up players by using their own players in the media. we all remember who they went about to get fabregas?? all barca players was in the media and told how mutch they would love if he did come “home”?? and this financial rules we can forget now. there is no way uefa or fifa would let barca,real m,chelsea,city not get into CL. think of all the commersiall value barca and real m has, and the money they get to sell this CL out to tv stations. it would not be that high without those clubs. so i dont belive we will see any changes soon.
Well, after a long break from the interweb’s best Gooner site, the latest act of player chicanery has prompted me to get back to business.
Having gone through all the comments from the point yesterday when Robin “Cut him and he bleeds Arsenal (ha ha!)” van Persie released his self-serving, abusive statement, I’m impressed at what you guys have been saying. It’s not the only tip-top response but Total’s post is excellent, it beautifully expressing the sense of double-betrayal he, as a Dutch Gooner, feels.
I have zero problem with van Persie deciding the time is right for him to move, and I don’t object to whatever motivates him (though the obvious desire for money in the guise of so-called ambition does make me think less of him). But what he has done, by using his supposed love for us as a means to attack and undermine our club and our manager so that he can engineer the move he wants is unforgiveable. Wenger now has a harder job than he would have had to keep players at the club, and drive us on to success next season. It didn’t need to be this way, van Persie has chosen to do it because he is desperate for a last big payday and was probably worried he wouldn’t get it, especially after his embarrasing performances at the Euros.
By all means put your interests ahead of everyone else’s Robin, but please don’t insult us and undermine our club, of which you are the bloody captain and the senior player, and which has, as your wife and mother have said, stuck by you when you were chronically injured and all but useless, using our hard-earned money to pay you stupidly high wages for sitting around various doctors’ surgeries and physio rooms for months on end, contributing sweet FA to the cause.
Van Persie’s behaviour is worse than Nasri and Adebayor, they are moral numpties from whom we could expect little more. And Cesc and Henry left the right way – the departures were blows, but they didn’t twist the knife and make our lives harder than they needed to be. Van Persie is our captain, he carries additional responsibilities even if he wants to go. But his sense of entitlement got the better of him, no doubt in part thanks to the Iago-like whisperings of his team of agents (including that tosser, Darren Dein, who has made a career out of getting our best players to leave).
I hope I never see van Persie back at Ashburton Grove again, he can go rot for all I care. Sell him to PSG, Bayern, Juve, Barca, Steua Bucharest, Helsingborgs, I don’t care, just don’t allow him to go to another club in this country.
But for all the unnecessary disrespect van Persie has shown us and our club, we could still push on to have the successful season we wanted: another big signing may be now needed but there is still plenty that is good about our squad, even if van Persie thinks it’s ok to openly insult his own colleagues in this way.
Catch you guys later.
Redders, thank god your back. i was concerned that you may have morphed into the English Dictionary and the only way of contacting you was through a £19.99 purchase at WH Smiths. I was going to publicly bemoan your absence but didnt want to come over all homo erotic. hahahaha
Thanks for the post TA. Ime not concerned about RVP at all. Everything is going to plan, and RVP was never part of it. We will see a more rounded and complete Arsenal next year. This is just the beggining of the journey, and with a bit of luck we may just nick the league next year.
Did any one ever have one of those creepy Jack in the Box toys as a kid. Well thats what Arsenal are. These Bastards can never keep us down.
To busy with work to hang around so everyone have a good day. Believe in our future, its going to be glorious.
Hi kols, thanks for joining the debate – it does extend beyond individual club loyalties and sadly I agree with your conclusions in the main.
Welcome back 26m. We don’t know what went on in the conversation between RvP, AW and IG, so its hard to know who betrayed who. I believe that it was made clear that RvP wanted to leave, otherwise they would have been happy to announce his new contract.
Bryan
What they are doing with the money is different to, they are lining their pockets.
50million every year? Where do you get that figure? We have money, yes, but no set budget unlike in the football manager scenario. Gazidis said that last year I think. How much to spend, and how much we can afford to spend on a certain player, is decided as and when. Could we have spent more? Probably. But I reckon the board was accounting for having a safeguard in case of not finishing in the CL. I just think we’re looking to hold firm for 2 more seasons. That’s when we renew our major sponsorship deals. It is also the year Wenger’s contract runs out, but I’m pretty sure the board will like him to stay. He himself should want to considering he’s worked towards giving Arsenal a better future. We’re still paying for the stadium remember.
The point of the stadium was and remains to propel us to the elite. Not moving would have seen us further behind. Ask Liverpool or Spurs, or even Chelsea who want to expand/move stadium. The timeline was delayed because of the influx of oil money. But we’re still heading there. I don’t think Uefa will impose FFP like they say they will. But I’m also thinking that the rich clubs also wont be able to ride roughshod over it. Clubs like us, Liverpool, even ManU, will protest if those rules are allowed to be freely circumvented. Whatever you think of Arsenal, we are a bug enough club, with a big enough viewership, to create some problems for uefa. Especially if we’re not alone in that. That should help us further.
I’m sorry but I must be missing something here lol
I don’t believe he has said any bad things about Arsenal, just stated what to me seems clear, that the people running Arsenal lack ambition.
He nothing like a Nasri or Adebeyor who are just mercenaries,
I actually don’t believe it is about money to him, you can call me niave if you like but I really don’t.
Hi Bryan, I’m not necessarily disagreeing with what you say, but I think the phrase should not be that ‘the club lacks ambition’….
…… rather that ‘the club’s ambitions are different to those of many supporters’
Self sustaining survival, and maybe even a healthy growth in the value of the investment for the owner will not always translate into spending fortunes on players.
thank you rasp, i know there is not mutch love betwen our fans,clubs and so on. but this is a problem that is getting worse by the day. i see walcot is threthening to leave if RVP does?? sett walcot in the reserves and let him rot, i was saying the same about modric. this is people who is under contracts, and if the club dont want to sell, than they should honor that contract. arsenal has made walcott what he is today, and he should have the curtesy to stand by the club, and not loyal to one great season player VP. but the club is always bigger than those jack-asses. the club will always be there after they are gone. some body here that remembere terry butcher? when he played all full off blood in that game for england?? i cant see a single player in the premier that would do THAT for his club. i miss those days when players was playing for the badge, and not the bank account.
Hi Rasp. You’re right that we don’t know what was said and what wasn’t, though I find your interpretations of the tea-leaves pretty credible.
However, we do know there was an agreement not to talk publicly about contract renewal. Some may say that was breached by comments from PHW (they didn’t, he just said there had been no offers) and Wenger (no, he just said he wanted van Persie to stay). Van Persie’s own statement acknowledges that he was speaking in breach of that agreement (“I have kept quiet all this time out of respect and loyalty for the club and as agreed with Mr. Gazidis and Mr. Wenger, but since there is so much speculation in the media, I think it is fair for you guys to know what’s really going on at the moment.”).
I have no doubt van Persie feels betrayed, and I’m sure he has created a convenient version of events that serves a strategy of attacking the club, Wenger and his colleagues as a means to engineer a move. But can you honestly say there is anything to justify the extras in his statement? If it were you, would you not feel ashamed of behaving in this way? As I say, I don’t begrudge anyone deciding the time may have come to move; I just don’t see how anyone could justify the attack contained in the statement. It might even rise to the level of a disciplinary offence and breach of contract, though I’m sure the last thing Gazidis and Wenger would do would be to fine van Persie.
@ TMHT 10.19
brilliant comment, especially the start, a dictionary hahahaha
@ Rasp I can’t agree with your slant on things today. I also think Arsene had more than a slight nod & a wink that RvP would be going, but the only way for the club to realise RvP’s market value is is for Arsene to say we as a club intend to make RvP see out his contract. Its only by declaring that in the statement immediatly released by the club following RvP’s attempt to force a move that Arsenal tell potential buyers, if you want him this year? Your gonna have to stump up big money.
Also remember AW’s statement last season? If it was up to me Nasri would be held to his contract! “If it was up to him”? It was quickly made clear to all that it wasn’t up to him, least people forget Kroenke owns AFC. When AW made that statement it was correct on two accounts firstly in pure footballing terms (which is AW’s remitt) it was 100% we didn’t have sufficient cover in the midfield playmaker role to lose both Cesc & Nasri at the same time.
Especially before any possible replacements could settle in so Mr owner on your head be it if for the sake of £20 mil you blow our season because while new replacements settle in good results probably won’t follow. Next up it was correct (as it is now) to indicate that we don’t really need the money and we are prepared to lose the £20mil sale price after all we’ll only be out the £2.75mil we paid for him.
This is all simply good business practise, otherwise we are showing our hand. I want the ingrateful injury prone RvP gone yesterday but I’m an emotional fan who also wants good money back for him.
In business deals of course Arsene has got to “spin” the news its so naive to think that Arsene should just come out and tell everyone the true situation like “Yes RvP will be leaving why do you think I bought two new strikers” .Therefore armed with that knowledge just make a low bid and we’ll have to accept it. In the words of Thatcher No! No! No! We intend to make RvP see out his contract with us even if it means he spends the year on the bench we can afford to do this, but if you want him now get your check books out and pencil in 8 figures.
This is a similar situation now, to last year only Arsene acted long before RvP’s much anticipated declaration by buying two strikers. Arsene then stated he intended to play all 3 forwards in a striker heavy formation next season. Why make such an outrageous statement? Well again if not you show everyone out there including clubs who we might want to buy players from your hand. This is poker. Personally I viewed that statement as serverly tonge in cheek, almost the day after we signed Giroud I thought “Arsene knows”
Hi 26m, no I agree with you, I said several times last night that the wording of RvP’s statement was ill advised and laid him open to the criticisms you have levelled.
I don’t know who (if anyone) advised him at the time, but I am pretty sure he meant no disrespect to his fellow players – although it does read like that.
Rasper, 🙂
I am smiling as I type this, both because of my temerity in daring to challenge your comment @ 9:28, and my confidence in anticipating your outraged reaction, altho I mean the following as a rather back-handed compliment.
In your comment, you demonstrate that you have all the hall marks of a great creative writer, in that you can, occasionally, take whatever limited ‘evidence’ is currently available and spin it, with a creditable sense of authoritative belief, into an intriguing and, on the face of it, an entirely plausible explanation of events.
[That’s the compliment] 🙂
An alternative view to the one you have expressed, based on no more evidence than you have, is that RVP has had a clear and long standing idea of what he wanted to do with his career, and how he wanted to go about doing it.
Having made up his mind last year that he wanted to go, following the Nasri/Cesc debacle, the first part of his strategy would have been to travel down the well worn route of appearing to commence preliminary contract talks last Summer, and then find a pretext to delay them.
Any management attempts to resume these putative talks, during the 2011/12 season, would be rebuffed with the selfless excuse of not wishing to distract from the team achieving success during the run in to the season climax; with the implied caveat that constructive discussions would commence immediately the season ended, and before the Euros began.
In the meantime, he and/or his agent, would have carefully contacted suitable clubs, and a deal struck for the salary he wanted and with the intent to sign once the final piece of his jigsaw was put into place.
It is still notionally illegal for clubs/players to tap each other up, so the end of season ‘talks’ with Arsenal were again postponed until after the Euros, to establish a discrete delayed timeline with his ‘new’ club, and then the coup de grace was effected by releasing a carefully compiled ‘statement’ putting both himself and Arsenal into conflicting and untenable positions.
[Same unproven ‘facts’ different motivation, similar end result] 🙂
Perhaps we can, together, set up a footballing Mills and Boon publishing house? 🙂
Shard
I got the 50M kitty from what I read but even if it is 30M which as a big club I should think we should have or less we still got £35M & 23M from selling Cesc & Nasri & they needed to be replaced & they were not & I know Arteta has proved to be a great signing for a decent price.
Also they told us when we moved to the new stadium that we would still have decent money to buy players as well as paying back the debt.
I am a season ticket holder & have been for 25 years & as we are paying the highest prices on the planet, I do feel we should be showing more ambition with the signing of top players.
& quoting you
“But I reckon the board was accounting for having a safeguard in case of not finishing in the CL”
That statement sums it up quite well, lack of ambition because surely if they spent some of the money they already had, added with the sales of Cesc & Nasri on top players our chances of playing CL or heavons forbid even challenging for the title would be dramatically increased
No one can doubt RvP’s passion for football, it was etched all over his face last season when scoring some memorable goals, but we have seen this all before with Fabregas, and we shouldn’t confuse it with loyalty.
Loyalty is about sticking with something or someone even when the times are hard, and unfortunately, the times have been hard for 8 years now, which has proved too much for most to bare, including RvP. The majority of the players that have gone through this lean spell have jumped ship, but Robins hurts the most.
Good morning guys 🙂
Thanks for the feedback. When I wrote the post last night, I had to keep reading it over again and again. I just did not think there was much cohesion to it; that I had just been rambling about all sorts of things. Last night, my head was in a spin and the helping of a couple of beers to stem the disappointed did not help much either. Reading the post again today, it does actually sum up exactly the way I feel about it: so, phew! 🙂
Thanks for being the salmon today Rasp. I don’t agree with you but your theory is not inconceivable. The lack of respect for the club still shines through and the way he has gone about is unforgivable.
Hi RA 🙂
Good to see the voice of reason and occasional healthy detachment back 🙂 Footballers are not like other employees, just as much as priests, politicians, and anybody else with a wider, social responsibility are not just employees. We the fans invest some of our souls in them, especially when they make us believe that they will bleed for this club. The sense of betrayal is therefore very real. I agree with your general sentiments though!
HI 26M, very good to see you back and with a fine comment as well. You have been missed. 🙂
Hi Shard, you are on a roll today. I guess your post-birthday headache has finally subdued?!
Thanks to all others who made excellent comments today. 🙂 🙂
Hi richie,
I’ve heard the ‘Arsène tells lies for the sake of the club’ argument many times.
The problem is, that it assumes that the people these statements are aimed at are idiots.
It’s OK to say, he was not talking to the fans but just sending out a message to prospective buyers that we won’t let him go on the cheap.
But these guys are professionals, they’ve heard it all before, it’s just part of the process of buying and selling players
It just so happens that AW makes a habit of going over the top. I cannot believe anyone interested in buying one of our players in the future will take the slightest bit of notice of what AW says on the subject.
Hi TA, thanks. I’m like you, I’m just telling it the way I see it.
You and I have been consistent in our views and I can see the validity in everything you say. I do not always agree but it is usually 50/50 on which one of us is right – assuming either of us are 😉
We both know that the club comes first and that is the most important point of agreement.
i totally agree with you, i percieve greed in him. very unfortunate for our lovely captain
.
P.S. I forgot to say I don’t believe for a minute that Nasri left because our ambitions didn’t match his, Money Citeh only got it by default because Man U threw away the title for once, Nas moved for bucks. In Nasri’s very good friend RvP we have the exact same scenario his ambitions will be matched only when gets a shit load more mazumba.
£56m made on player sales last year for 2 players that didn’t win anything, £55m spent on Santos, BFG, Park, Ox, Gerv, Jenks and most importantly Arteta. Oh and guess what we finished 1 position higher and got CL football. Good Business or Bad Business?
Rasp,
You are right that in saying that hard bitten football business managers would in any way be affected by public comments or disclaimers from other interested parties.
I have previously said that I wished Arsene would not rise to the bait of publicly commenting or answering loaded questions put to him by journalists.
It is in his nature, it seems, to honestly answer journo questions, without actually revealing confidential details, but, I suppose, if he refused to answer them, the spin in the papers would be that he had something to hide.
Buggered if he does and ditto if he doesn’t!
I totally agree with you on that one richie. I don’t believe RvP’s main motivation is money. We’ll see now how much influence his family exert because they want to stay in the UK which means he’s manchester bound if they get their way.
True Red Arse, if you’re an AW supporter, you are probably reaching the conclusion that what he wants and what he gets are two different things …. will he be signing a new contract I wonder?
Hi TA, Terry, Oz, glad to be back on good old AA, and lo and behold we also have the pleasure of our errant lawyer back in action, once more! 🙂
Not been too good, lately, but had to pull the Glicster’s leg last night, [he always makes me laugh] and that must have given me the energy to chat with you guys. For a while anyway!! 🙂
Anyone else see the irony of criticising the clubs spending policy on the same day Rangers can’t even organise a pre season friendly.
Bryan, with the greatest of respoect (genuinely!), I do think you’re naive! No matter how much truth there is in it (and I don’t think there’s much) van Persie’s statement serves the interests of one person
As for ambition: we’ve just bought a German international with 100+ caps and the lead striker from the French champions. Plus last summer we signed one of English football’s greatest young talents, another established German international and possibly the best uncapped player in football today. I’d like to think there will be some further recruitment but it seems to me the club has shown it’s ambitous, it just won’t spend unsustainably the way the shieikhs do. And that’s a good thing.
@ Rasp sorry mate but I think Red Arse’s vision at 10:42 just about slam dunks the real RvP motivations in this saga.
Really good to see you back RA and hope you will feel better soon 🙂
Rasp,
I think AW has 2 more years to go, and he said recently he would be seeing his contract out.
This may sound like faint praise for him, tho’ that is not intended, but if I was giving him personal advice, I would say think very long and very carefully before countenancing a contract extension.
My advice would be in consideration of what would be in the best interests of him personally, as a very decent man.
The club might suffer as a consequence, but as I have said above about the players, life and the club goes on, and we would have a new manager in the fullness of time.
Rasp 9.28am
‘Nothing changes. We continue to buy players from the middle shelf (£10 – £15m)’ That includes a man with 44 goals in 101 internationals for Germany? Sorry mate I must be missing something.
It isn’t how much you spend, but how wisely.
@ 26may89 11:08 Very well said Sir!!
Hi richie, I don’t disagree with what RA wrote @ 10:42. It’s all part of the process as I’ve said, he just went into another area of that process.
What I don’t agree with is the easy get out that RvP is doing this just for the money. 100% that was Na$ri’s motivation, but I personally believe the reasons RvP gave were the truth but his execution of that announcement and possibly the timing was flawed.
Hi GiE, you have made some fine comments over the last 24 hours or so. 🙂
I really like the one where Arsene is to talk to everybody and say are you in or out. Clear the air with everyone and get one committed squad who believe in Wenger and will work their socks off next season.
Hope your wife pregnancy is going well! 🙂
Hi mystic @11:12 …. yes …. and I didn’t say anything to the contrary.
With Arsenal its all about maximising the resources we have. If you have been reading a while you will know that I accept that we cannot compete with the billionnaire clubs, and I have never advocated getting into debt for possible short term gains. We just have to use our skill and intelligence to maximise our resources and that translates into trying to get the best players we can within our means.
I am sick and devastated. This is the news I have been afraid of hearing. I have been running away from reading any post because I dont want to go through the agony that I went through last year during Fabregas and Nasri saga, only for a colleague, a barcelonian fan with a smile on his face, greeting me this morning with “how is your Van Persie?” i knew something bad had happened. I know the shock will be over. I know , no player is bigger than the club. I’ll continue to love and support our dear club BUT I dont think that I will ever love any Arsenal player again. Love is reciprocal. I ‘ll continue to support them as long as they are still donning Arsenal jerseys. Where are their love and loyalty for the club and fans? As for me, it is Arsenal 4 life.
Thanks, TA, reading your work is a great fillip! 🙂
See you later!!
Rasp, I fully agree, 50 + 50, with your comment @11.17 🙂
@ RA
been in hiding myself, glad your back as well as the lawyer extraordinaire 26. Sorry to hear about your health, but if laughter is the best medicine GLIC and Terry provide it in spades.
@ TA
couldn’t agree more with your comments today
Rasp
I have just read the first comment. rvp is scum. He deserves everything that he gets. The club can’t compete with city no one can except the chavs. “confused and annoyed” poor fucker. I hope he gets a serious injury. He’s dead fuck him.
At least Nasri didn’t talk shit before he left. The man has more class than robin
I’M PERSONALY GLAD WITH THIS ARTICLE. WELL DONE “TA” BUT NOW I THINK IT IS RIGHT TIME WE THINK ABOUT THE WAY OUT AND NOT JUST TROWING THE BLAME AROUND. FOR ME, I THINK ARSENAL SHOULD FORCE HIM TO RUN OUT HIS CONTRACT, BCOZ HIS PUBLIC ANOUNCEMENT TO LEAVE WILL SURELY PREVENT ANY CLUB TO OFFER BIG MONEY FOR HIM. SO AM SURE HE WILL PERFORM GREATLY IN ORDER TO ATRACT BIG CLUB BY THE TIME HE BCOME A FREE AGENT NEXT YEAR AND THAT WE ALSO FAVOUR US. LUCKILY IF WE WIN TROPHY NEXT YEAR, HE MAY EVEN DISIDE TO STAY.
😆 gm, that was my first reaction, but I’ve calmed down. You are also totally consistent in your approach on these matters – I doff my hat to you.
I’M PERSONALY GLAD WITH THIS ARTICLE. WELL DONE “TA” BUT NOW I THINK IT IS RIGHT TIME WE THINK ABOUT THE WAY OUT AND NOT JUST TROWING THE BLAME AROUND. FOR ME, I THINK ARSENAL SHOULD FORCE HIM TO RUN OUT HIS CONTRACT, BCOZ HIS PUBLIC ANOUNCEMENT TO LEAVE WILL SURELY PREVENT ANY CLUB TO OFFER BIG MONEY FOR HIM. SO AM SURE HE WILL PERFORM GREATLY IN ORDER TO ATRACT BIG CLUB BY THE TIME HE BCOME A FREE AGENT NXT YEAR AND THAT WE ALSO FAVOUR US. LUCKILY IF WE WIN TROPHY NEXT YEAR, HE MAY EVEN DISIDE TO STAY.
Surely we all knew this was coming.once again as the season draws closer we will be looking desperately for a replacement for an irreplacable player.Nice how the confirmation came out after we have coughed up for our season tickets again.Slippery B…….. all of them
Wasn’t robin injured at the end of the season that Dudu had his leg broken? Maybe we would have won a trophy if he wasn’t injured so much. I hate him
Actually hate is probably the wrong word, despise
Hi Oz, glad you are back as well. That gives me an opportunity to say well done with spotting Giroud for us many months ago. At the time, I had never heard of him! 🙂
You clearly have an eagle eye when it comes to finding talents who would fit well at Arsenal!
I think it is a real possibility now that we will go for an attacking, creative midfielder who can score between 12-20 goals a season for us and produces many assists. Any ideas, other than the usual suspects?
A great post.
Is there a more enjoyable affirmation of what unrequited and unfulfilled love is?
Being a fan is about this moment. It is a time to reflect and pull yourself apart. It is a chance to decide whether you hate or love the club. It is a call to arms or a showing of unity. We are not supporting NEWCO RANGERS here. We are Arsenal and whether we like it or not, we are a strange and weird anomaly.
We produce and nurture better players who underachieve than any other club in the UK. We have the infrastructure to wipe the floor with most clubs. We have a style of football and management that invites players to express what they feel on the pitch.
But we rarely stunt the growth of players. We give them what they need and ask them to realise their potential. Robin did that but forget that potential does not equal success. He wants to experience this because otherwise he will be remembered as nothing more than a shorn and uglier David Ginola.
We produce the players who should be able to bring the best of Arsenal into a team with higher aspirations. A team who don’t aim for fourth. A team who live for today and spend like Peter Risdale. They send a middle man, through a middle man, to talk with the representatives of whoever and broker the deal. We know this and knew all along that RVP had indulged in such chats.
He is gone and he is tarnished. He will never be liked because the best players are hated by domestic opposition. So be it. He is being offered by Man City, the equivalent of an 8 year best-ever Arsenal contract. That is a remarkable playing field on which we cannot compete. It will turn the head of any greedy guts because even though he declares it is not about money, he says that to Arsenal but not to City. Don’t even talk to him unless you offer 4 years at over £225k per week.
He has not handed in a transfer request yet, because ideally he would like to keep 10-15% of his transfer fee. Fabregas waived this to look nice, but his singular club approach lost Arsenal £15 million.
RVP should be sold to PSG, Anzhi, Malaga, even Madrid. Money up front and see you sometime. £20 million is fair and forget he played for us. We have to be as cut throat as he is. If the money is reinvested, then so be it. He never won us anything. We didn’t win him anything either. So our affair with his talent ends because the green is always more lush elsewhere.
Man City however, well they can continue to buy Arsenal players who failed in the quest for success. Eventually, it will be proven that Wenger couldn’t get the best out of these players, or that they just come 4th at best but on higher salaries. The latter is fine by me.
Lastly, both the management and board have to accept that this is never going to change. The problem is the cycles that these ‘rich’ clubs move in. While we to continue to produce outstanding players (which some blogs now say we have none), then they will be cherry picked at their earliest convenience. The FFP rules mean nothing because the loopholes are enormous and UEFA are not far behind FIFA in being a corrupt, docile and reactive bully.
But we cannot stop at RVP. We need a night of the long knives. We need to clear out the dead wood. We know who they are. But with them we need to get Song and Walcott out before they start to moan. We need to be left with a core of strength and focus to which we add talent. That is how we built 1998 and 2002. We demonstrated it best in 2004. These were flair players protected by grafters. We will win things with Wilshere and Arteta playing and Song long gone.
Robin has been badly advised in how to leave. You have all pointed that out. He was always adventurous and arrogant, nasty and yet wonderful. But he is flimsy and awkward. He always took too many touches and he broke the Arsenal ‘pace’ when he became the fulcrum. Having only Bendtner and Chamakh to threaten him, he redoubled his efforts when he realised he was on sale.
Wenger has bought and needs to buy more. He needs determination to continue to buy for a unit. Arsenal’s choice has got to be, ‘do we compete with the more powerful units financially, or do we continue with the same path?’
Soon enough, like the ignorantly named ‘Makalele position’, 3rd/4th place will be renamed ‘the Arsenal position’, until we adjust from our slumber. We will continue to provide the big teams with our best players until we increase our wages. We don’t need to pay huge amounts for players. We just need to hold on to them.
We don’t do this for Wenger. He is not long for this club. We do it for the Club. We do it for the name. We now have the line in the sand. The stage management of the club is as weak today as a Diana Ross penalty. We need some intent, some truth, hell even some lies! But we need to roll out the hardcore player/fans and get them to sell us the future. Tell us how excited they are to work with Bould. Tell the media that we are a tight unit who cannot wait for next year. Tell the players who leave and have left that we are fit and strong and coming together on and off the pitch to bleed for each other.
Tell RVP to fuck off to the studio world of individual trailers, agents and press managers, stylists and make-up artists. To stick his Hollywood lifestyle in his pipe and watch how the Man City te(i)am don’t know how to cherish what they have because they all feel their individual contribution was most important.
RVP is all cock and no balls. In fact Walcott and Song are his balls. Take them all away and watch their surprise when they realise that you cannot emasculate Arsenal.
But let’s catch city off balance. RVP for Kompany plus £10 million.
That’s what I say.
Samiluv, please can you unlock ‘caps lock’: it looks like you are shouting at us! 😉
Arsenal need to keep threatening to let him finish his contract, but all bridges are burned, and the stench will not go away.
fergalburger …… immense comment …. nothing to add
26may1989
Maybe I am niave I won’t take it personally haha, but as I said, I do believe RVP has afew more scruples & I don’t think it is about the money.
With the greatest respect I also think people are naive to say RVP gave us one good season, as only a couple of seasons ago he played half the season & still finished top scorer at Arsenal.
We have signed 2 proven players for the first time in years,
The Ox is a serious tallent & well happy to have him but signing youngsters isn’t really showing ambition although you have to get the mix right & sign youngsters & established ones.
& don’t be surprised that when the Ox has played afew season & become a top player, he will be wanting a move too.
Last year we signed an established German, who in all honesty looks like he is on the way down to me, but again we signed him far to late because we farted about like we seem to do with so many of the transfers we make.
…. except Kompany is the best CB in the PL and there’s no way they’d contemplate that deal …… but I suspect you were joshing 🙂
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/robin-van-persie-transfer-why-arsenal-1133409
A good read from someone who usually writes rubbish
Bryan
We can’t match city or chelsea’s “ambition” We probably can’t win the league again either.
Can’t we give city the dutch scum plus £10M and get Balotelli?
It’s all about the wages gm. We will never be able to pay city’s top players enough to lure them away.
Very good article,with detailed explanation what a MAN should be made of
Congratulations to you and best regards to ALL the faithful gooners
goonermichael
Actually you worded that very wrongly 😉 we can match Chelsea & City’s ambition but we obviously cant match their spending & wages
As I have stated if you sell a top player you have to reinvest the money in top players & frequently we have not done that
“You cannot emasculate Arsenal” – well said Fergulburger, and great to see you back! 🙂
Unrequited/unfulfilled love? That is what it is. Remember when Figo left Barca for RM? I saw a banner back then that said (in Spanish obviously): “Figo, we hate you so much, because we loved you so much”. Robin’s betrayal stabs right into the heart (I have written many posts about him for AA singing his praises in the past).
Let’s see what will happen next with Song and Theo next. Too early to call in my view.
Cheers Gooner4ever 🙂 Feel free to comment in a bit more detail as we always welcome new bloggers on Arsenal Arsenal!
TotalArsenal
I think Theo owes us much more than RVP,
we have put up with his under par performances for quite afew years, the occasional good game now & again is just not good enough
Bryan
We are as ambitious as them then. We’ve just built a stadium without a sugar daddy or a city council giving it to us.
I know we can’t have Balotelli Rasp I was just fanasising
Hi Bryan 🙂
They owe us both. If you look at Theo’s statistics over the last two seasons though, you’ll see he’s as good as any winger in the PL. I bet he’ll get better again in the next few years, and it is important that he’ll repay our fate in him by signing a new contract. I don’t think that will happen now though. 😦
fantasising
Word press doesn’t work on IE properly. I an’t see what I’m typing past the 4th line. I hope we get rid of him ASAP. He’s really stinking the place out.
theo is gone I think. He’ll folow his boyfriend
Denilson is gone Rasp. You can update the sidebar
Gone permanently = sold, or on loan again gm?
TotalArsenal
thats what I’m saying, RVP has given us alot but Theo hasn’t
& stats or not for me Theo has been a major dissapointment, often picks wrong option (he shoots when he should cross & vice versa) I think the Ox has already given us more lol
goonermichael
Don’t know how you think that, we are not as ambitious as them at all
how is selling a top player & not reinvesting the money to at least make your team as strong as it was the season before ambitious in any way.
If you sell one top player, you should go out & buy 2 top players, isn’t it about making your team better & stronger than the last season especially if you are not winning things
He’s agreed the loan again Rasp. It was lost in all the stuff about rvp.
Bryan
Isn’t building a 60000 seater stadium a ststement of ambition?
After cesc and nasri left we bought a lot of players and after the start we had we finished better off than we were with them. We’ve already spent on Poldi and Giroud more than we’ll get for pussy.
I read this in a London Evening Standard report.
Arsenal shareholder Alisher Usmanov today blamed Robin van Persie’s imminent departure on the board’s reluctance to spend big and warned that the club must drop this policy if they are to challenge for honours.
The Arsenal captain yesterday revealed he would not sign a new contract, which has a year to run.
Arsene Wenger will hold talks with the club’s board later this month about Van Persie, with the Arsenal manager desperate to keep his best player but the hierarchy must consider the financial implications of allowing the skipper to leave for free next summer.
Usmanov is dismayed by the turn of events given that the Gunners lost Cesc Fabregas to Barcelona and Samir Nasri to Manchester City last summer.
The Uzbek billionaire, who owns just under 30 per cent of Arsenal shares but does not have a seat on the board, has spelt out his concern in an open letter to the directors today.
He wrote: “The situation with our captain and outstanding performer from last season Robin van Persie sums this up. Yet again we are faced with losing our true marquee player at the club because we cannot assure him of the future direction and give confidence that we can win trophies.
“Where are the safeguards to ensure that this doesn’t happen again and again in the future? As a top club we should at the very least match if not beat the offers that the other clubs make to try and lure our very best players away and also provide a compelling vision of the future.
“You can try and put a good face on a bad game for as long as you want, pontificating about the merits of this model but it will not hide the obvious fact that it just does not allow our great manager to fully realise his managerial talent and deliver success for the fans who are paying the highest prices in the land.
“It appears that a place in the Champions League will be the pinnacle of our ambition again next season. Unfortunately, in the future we may see this ambition lowered further.”
Hmm……………………….I am beginning to like this guy. If you cannot beat the Chavs, Citeh, YooNited, PSG etc, maybe we need to reconsider our position on the ‘sustainable model’.
After Arsene that model could presage a slide down the table — he is a ‘one off’.
Yikes, what am I saying???????? 🙂
Bryan, RvP has relatively not given us more than Theo. Remember, there is a five year age gap between them as well.
Fine with me if you want to ignore the hard stats and judge a player on your perception of what makes him good or bad. It just becomes a subjective thing then.
Hi RA 🙂
It must very frustrating for Usmanov to have all this spare cash sloshing around in his wide, greasy pockets but just not being allowed to spend it on his favourite pastime.
Why trust in football nous and vision, hard work and all that, when you can just buy whatever you want? Very poor of him to release this now. I hope he’ll never succeed and gets bored in the end.
TA,
You might be interested in the whole letter, of which I have only copied and pasted a part of, which as you imply has been caused I suspect by the impending sale of RVP.
Really interesting — and he has me, at least, re-considering my previous thoughts on the matter. 🙂
RA, I just read the BBC article, thanks.
Wow tremendous comments today…I actually see more unity in the faithful coming from this than I expected.
Maybe last season was a reminder to many of us that no matter what we the fans make the club and today we are showing our colours to RvP and saying “this is love”
TA thanks for noticing I haven’t been able to interact as much as I would like just typing into the ether to anyone that’s listening, thoroughly enjoying the to and fro tho.
Simply stunning, TA.
Off to read the comments.
@Rasp your comments at 11:17 sum up our predicament exactly unless and until the fair play rules are enacted there’s no way we can compete finacially with the £220K a week wages the Money City Shieks will pay, and to be perfectly honest I wouldn’t want us to. The £80k a week we pay RvP is morethan enough IMHO. So we’ll just have to buy the lesser talent and pay less wages and let Arsene continue to develope players. That and expand our academy.
Agreed richie, and that is what we appear to be doing.
We also need to learn from our mistakes. We were too quick to pay mediocre players high wages in the hope they would achieve the potential we’d hoped – and we are still paying the price for that today.
The parity of pay policy may have been effective in the past but is completely outdated now.
20,000km away I am. RVP leaving is like a kick up the blurter.
Stats don’t always tell the whole story TotalArsenal,
A great example is Denilson regurlary finishing in the top 2 in Prem with pass completions 😉
if your seriously comparing RVP with Theo, Robin is miles ahead of Theo in every category.
RVP hasn’t really given us more, surely you are really joking here & when RVP came at a young age he still was a far better player.
I agree with alot of what Robson said about Theo, he is an athlete who plays football, his football brain is terrible.
I watch Theo every week & most weeks he is hardly even in the game, he really goes missing. I think he had his best season this year to be fair.
goonermichael
building the stadium so we can compete was very ambitious but then they seemed to forget about the competing bit,they promised paying for it would not hinder that hmmmm
I hate to say we lack ambition, I truly do but that is the truth & that is why we lose so many top players.
Also for a team that doesn’t spend like the other big 3, we punch more than our weight & our players get lots of attention so the richer clubs nab them, if we were not making CL each season, we would not be losing our big players so often, that is all credit to Wenger.
Finally lol I have read peoples comments & I respect their opinions, were all entitled to our own 😉 though alot of the bad comments to do with RVP remind me very much of the sort of thing people say when they have been dumped by a long time girl/boyfriend haha, all the resentment stuff & like they have become a different person, Arsenal run deep in my veins but I can understand a class player wanting to leave if they have been at a club for 8 years or so & have little or nothing in the trophy cabinet & on top of that every year you see your better players leave & replaced with the Gerviho’s of the world lol (don’t rate him either but give him another season) 😉
Look can I be brutally honest here. Players use Arsenal as a leg up, then their managers find the best suiter for them. It’s sad but true under project youth. Hopefully things will change, but the last 7 yrs has been a failure fort the Wenger ideology.
Bryan, just try to name me a significantly better winger in the PL and back it up with some stats. Goals and assists are the things that mainly matter for a winger in the end.
Hi all,
I think we have to make a distinction between “ambition” and the strategy/policy to achieve that ambition.
We can reasonably argue that Arsenal have ambition. Moreover, with their current strategy/policy of youth/bargain development, I would argue Arsenal display greater ambition than clubs with sugar-daddies.
One can question whether this strategy can/will lead to trophies. Surely it seems easier to win by purchasing talents, than to develop them. We all know football is a team sport, however. A collection of extremely talented individuals might not achieve as much as a group playing with dedication, we all know this as well. I’m sure van Persie knows this all too well.
As TA suggested in the article, the challenge now for Arsenal is to maintain team cohesion and camaraderie in light of what has happened. It would have been helpful if van Persie saw us through the year, but it looks impossible now. Arsenal have the painful task of reforging the team’s attacking edge again, albeit we are in a better position this year than last.
In any case, I’m looking forward to next season.
Open statement/questions to Robin.
Hello mate.. well when i say mate i actually mean enemy of all gooners.
I know you say you are not leaving for money! You say you want to win things and the club lacks ambition.
However we (the supporters) have been with out a trophy for as many years as you now.
So why are you not sticking with us? if you truly love the club why would you not want to stand by our side? Have you not got enough money? Is the desire to leave because you realise that now you are fit and the allegations are now behind you, you no longer have to pretend to love someone you dont so you can now go to a club you can gouge even more money from?
Are you no longer a gooner? (I WILL ANSWER THAT FOR YOU… YOU NEVER WERE, JUST A MARRIAGE OF CONVINIENCE UNTIL YOUR FITNESS IMPROVED)
TotalArsenal
Ashley Young, Mata, Adam Johnson when he plays lol there a few off the head
I can’t be bothered with the stats as I said judge a player by watching him & most games Theo goes missing but I would deffinately pursue with him, I just don’t know how you could make the comment about RVP owing us as much as Theo, when Theo hasn’t given us anything like as much as Robin has
Arsenal do not lack ambition, we just believe in certain values. You could only accuse us of being too scrupulous or too prudent.
Living within your means, focusing on the short term as well as the long term health of the club, and playing attractive and successful football are what our club is made off.
What is wrong is that some clubs are allowed to get away with ‘investing’ up to £1bn pounds on buying titles. To be able to buy sporting successes with astronomical amounts of cash is fundamentally wrong – it goes against the very essence of sport.
Some clubs will always have more money than others. That goes without saying. But nobody should be allowed to spend limitlessly on player purchases and their salaries. This is killing the game and I hope we’ll never give into it.
anyone still think Jabba is good for the club?
Bryan1.5 season out of 8 is not a great return is it.
So you think Gervinho is a big step down from Nasri?
Is it a coincidence that the Usmanov letter is ‘leaked’ to the public just a day after RVP announcement? I smell some David Dein involvement here…..the letter has been aimed to rile up the more reactionary supporters frustrated by RVP’s decision.
I just hope this doesn’t divide the fans even further…now is the time for all of us to stick together,the last thing we need is another crap summer and a dismal start to the season 😦
Bryan, Mata is a good player but can hardly be called a winger at the Chavs. The others are ok but not better than Theo. The only one I would have over Theo is Valencia, but then he is significantly older than our man.
Right…
First off, thanks TA for a great Post. You have expressed my feelings better than I could have done.
Now to the future.
We are going to win the league this year.
Really, we are.
After sleeping on it I am delighted that the RvP thing has come out in the open and we can move on.
We have a great squad. It’s not Project Youth any more – with the likes of Pod, Giro, BFG, Arteta, Verm, Song, Kozzer etc it is a massively experienced squad with some genius youngsters (Wilshere, Oxo) coming through.
I fully expect a couple more key signings and a run to glory next May.
Bring it on!
Robin van who?
I will give R$VP maximum respect if he decides to leave us and go to play for example, at Dortmund.
Otherwise, to attempt to perpetuate an ever-diminishing notion that (valued) trophies are somehow disassociated from financial outlay of a club is at best, outrageous.
Hi Rocky, that’s the spirit! 🙂
Don’t forget Sagna and I reckon both Santos and Gibbs will also break through next year.
TotalArsenal
So you reckon RVP has given us 1.5 seasons out of 8, now do you are being totally ridiculous if you believe that.
& Ambition wise, you can still do that by living within your means & staying true to our values – we should of sold Cesc & gone out & bought a top drawer player for the same price, but that never ever happens does it.
I am totally with you, I don’t want to see us act like the billionaires but every year we get weaker & not stronger because we never reinvest the money we get from selling our big players in buying big players, its as simple as that.
Do you think its ambitious of us that the club feels success is just qualifying for the CL because I certainly don’t.
Goonermichael
Gervinho is a massive step down from Nasri, doesn’t come near him, struggles to score an open goal, I would sell him tomorrow like a shot – In fairness I will reserve judgement for another season but I thought he was pretty awful in his first season
Guys I respectfully point out to you sell RvP at £20mil and reinvest you say, but you won’t find another RvP out there with a £20mil price tag – Its not a credible arguement we buy young players with potential and then develope them into the RvP of the footballing world or we buy players who haven’t lived up to their full potential yet and develope them. Next up we develope players from our academy.
Its all the same word developement, because we can’t afford to buy the Aguero’s nor can we pay the wages that the mega rich clubs can. Too many of our own haven’t understood the changes that have come about in the prem. We went down the route of building a bigger capacity stadium so that once it was all paid up we’d be able to compete with the wages that Man U could pay because of their bigger ground. But even when we’ve finished with the stadium debt we won’t be able to compete with what the Money City Shieks pay.
Our stadium developement model was sound until Abromovich arrived and threw all the norms in the prem up in the air, now the even richer Shieks have arrived and the repercussions are being felt throughout Europe. There is not such thing as us competing with those guys even without any debts. I have thought for a long while now our only sustainable model will be a Barca “la Masia” or Ajax “Toekomst” style academy because it will give us two things cheap talent raised in our style of play and a semi automatic loyalty. Thats how we can try to compete with the mega rich.
Richie says:
“In business deals of course Arsene has got to “spin” the news its so naive to think that Arsene should just come out and tell everyone the true situation like “Yes RvP will be leaving why do you think I bought two new strikers” ”
LB says
Thank goodness there are Arsenal supporters like Richie.
Hi Bryan, RvP scored 59 goals in the first two season. In the six seasons before that he netted a mere 73. We stuck with him and he started to pay us back. Next season he could have/ should have completed the pay back.
Cesc, was irreplaceable. Our biggest hope was a mixture of JW and Diaby, but they remained injured throughout the season. For Nasri’s money we got The Ox, and Arteta and Benny on loan. That my friend was the deal of the century! 🙂 I don’t think we got weaker and would either Jack or Diaby have stayed fit all season, let alone both, we would have won something. Don’t forget we made progress last season, heavy spenders Pool and Chavs were left well behind us.
Richie 2.14
Abso-fucking-lutely.
You are making my life on this site so much easier.
@2.22 should read 59 goals in the LAST two seasons.
TotalArsenal
Surely Ashley Young scores more & assists more goals than Theo,
I’m assuming as I haven’t looked at stats but looks a better player to me apart from the euros cos Young was very poor in that 😉
Richie
Thats a fair comment but they did say we would still be able to compete finacially while we were paying the debt back & we should be able to buy & pay salaries to big players albeit not like City or Chelsea admitedly.
Our record signing is still 15M/17M I believe
Maybe I suggest that Arsenal start lowering the price of their tickets to reflect there spending model, as it works for them, why not us 😉 but they treat us with contempt, even when they make a exciting transfer were normally kept waiting to find out
I am not in favour of Usmanov or Kronke. Been a romantic fool i believe the supporters should own the Club. Never the less 2 things stand out for me in Usmanovs letter.
The first is historical but very important. the previous shareholders, Fizman, Smith etc made a lot of money by selling there shares. This was aided by the fact that arsenal held large cash reserves. there is nothing sweeter than pumping up share price than cash. Was this money held rather than spent on players deliberiatly? You make your own mind up.
The second is just as pertinent. when kronke bought the club he secured a loan,of which the details are very sketchy. Is he waiting for the right time to lump this burden on the Club like the Glazers at Utd? Again, make your own minds up.
These questions are much more important than the departure of a single player, they go to the heart of what the Club is or what it has become.
My two cents worth is that we all have the right to choose our employer and to negotiate the best terms, I’ve never felt a need to show loyalty to an employer.
Football players have a very short career and have to maximize their earnings while they are at their peak of performance.
Expecting them to explicitly articulate their feelings is expecting too much of them – and why do they have to in the first place?
I say good luck to RVP in the next stage of his career, wherever it might be, and thanks for the great memories.
TotalArsenal
Adding up your your 59goals in 2 seasons & 73goals 6 seasons comment I then say that means he gave us 4.4 good seasons, if you average out that at 30goals a year. I believe thats 4.1 better seasons than Theo’s given us lol
I must say the standard of blogging on here has gone up tremendously. So many knowledgeable people on here and representing their points so well.
Especially today when other so called arsenal sites are sticking the knife in to whoever happens to be around.
I feel like an underling. Well done.
Bryan:
Ashley Young: 36 games, 11 goals and 7 assists: 0.5 goals/assists per game (this includes his infamous diving assists). Young also can assist to two strikers.
Theo Walcott: 39, 10, 10 0.5 goals/assists
Source: whoscored.com
Bryan @2.34 very clever hahaha 🙂
Very true Kelsey.
Some fair points Gn5, but have you ever willingly broken a contract, burned your bridges behind you with an employer?
TotalArsenal
Glad you liked that 😉
Oh & Cesc was unreplacable, so what do you do then, do you not bother, no you try & buy another top tallented player, which means big money.
For Nasri’s money, didn’t we have any of our own money as well before we sold him because we haven’t been spending much of it over the years lol. & those signings were great but they were also too damn late, came after we took that severe 8-2 hammering at UTD, why didn’t he start the season with the players.
I remember most people not being to happy with Benny for most the season, they only starting liking him near the end.
As for Diaby, I was quite a fan of his but I’m not sure he’s ever going to be that great now, very inconsistent when he actually manages to stay fit & always seems to hold onto the ball to long.
The Vermaelen to Barca gravy train has started so I guess we’ve got him for 1 or 2 more seasons now grrrr
Kelsey
I hope I’m included in the inteligent blogger comment haha 😉
Bryan, we have to agree to disagree re Cesc’s potential replacement. 🙂
Anyway, where are you based?
The Life of Bryan 🙂
Total,
gonna call you that now I know you a bit lol
I live in Hoddesdon, which is Hertfordshire area
Can’t wait for football season to start, hopefully we will have at least 2 more recruits preferably M’Vila & Sakho 😉
Kelsey
One of my all time favourite films,
have watched it loads haha
Back online for a quick look, in light of reading the lastest on RvP.
@TA, Bryan & other viewers
A brief comparison b/w Walcott vs his teammate, Gervinho, Nani, Young & Valencia (proper wingers from Utd), Johnson from City & Lennon & Bale from Spurs, just in EPL season 11/12 alone. We look at their offensive & passing stats as well (disregarding the defensive stats):
Walcott, 23yrs
35 games(2727mins), 8 goals, 11 assists, Shots/game=2.2
Pass Success%=79.3%, Aerial duels won/game=0.3
Offensive stats:
Key passes: 41, Total dribbles: 35, Total fouled: 42,
Total offsides: 23, Total dispossessed: 65, Total turnovers: 82
Passing stats:
Accurate/Total passes: 665/839
Accurate/Total crosses: 18/134
Accurate/Total long balls: Nil
Accurate/Total throughball: 2/9
(Walcott’s character weaknesses): Defensive contribution(Very Weak), Holding on to the ball(Weak), Crossing(Weak), Passing(Weak)
Gervinho, 25yrs
28games(1679mins), 4 goals, 5 assists, Shots/game=1.4
Pass Success%=84.7%, Aerial duels won/game=0.1, MoM=1
Offensive stats:
Key passes: 36, Total dribbles: 38, Total fouled: 19,
Total offsides: 6, Total dispossessed: 51, Total turnovers: 41
Passing stats:
Accurate/Total passes: 521/615
Accurate/Total crosses: 3/51
Accurate/Total long balls: Nil
Accurate/Total throughball: 4/10
(Gervinho’s character strengths): Key passes(Strong), Dribbling(Strong)
(Gervinho’s character weaknesses): Aerial Duels(Weak), Defensive contribution(Weak)
Valencia, 26yrs
27games(2124mins), 4 goals, 14 assists, Shots/game=1
Pass Success%=85.6%, Aerial duels won/game=0.4, MoM=4
Offensive stats:
Key passes: 65, Total dribbles: 35, Total fouled: 17,
Total offsides: 11, Total dispossessed: 31, Total turnovers: 42
Passing stats:
Accurate/Total passes: 1032/1206
Accurate/Total crosses: 45/178
Accurate/Total long balls: 29/53
Accurate/Total throughball: 4/7
(Valencia’s character strengths): Key passes(Very Strong), Crossing(Strong), Holding on to the ball(Strong), Passing (Strong), Dribbling(Strong), Ball interception(Strong)
(Valencia’s character weaknesses): Aerial Duels(Weak)
Nani, 25yrs
29games(2104mins), 8 goals, 12 assists, Shots/game=2.2
Pass Success%=80.2%, Aerial duels won/game=0.5, MoM=3
Offensive stats:
Key passes: 68, Total dribbles: 53, Total fouled: 28,
Total offsides: 3, Total dispossessed: 64, Total turnovers: 54
Passing stats:
Accurate/Total passes: 841/1049
Accurate/Total crosses: 47/218
Accurate/Total long balls: 15/31
Accurate/Total throughball: 4/10
(Nani’s character strengths): Key passes(Very Strong), Dribbling(Very Strong), Long Shots(Strong), Taking set-pieces(Strong), Crossing(Strong), Passing (Strong)
(Nani’s character weaknesses): Aerial Duels(Weak)
Young, 26yrs
25games(1567mins), 6 goals, 11 assists, Shots/game=2.2
Pass Success%=83.8%, Aerial duels won/game=0.2, MoM=2
Offensive stats:
Key passes: 42, Total dribbles: 19, Total fouled: 51,
Total offsides: 7, Total dispossessed: 36, Total turnovers: 19
Passing stats:
Accurate/Total passes: 615/734
Accurate/Total crosses: 34/163
Accurate/Total long balls: 37/49
Accurate/Total throughball: 3/6
(Young’s character strengths): Key passes(Very Strong), Taking set-pieces(Very Strong), Crossing(Strong), Through balls(Strong), Long Shots(Strong), Direct free kicks(Strong), Finishing(Strong), Holding on to the ball(Strong)
(Young’s character weaknesses): Tackling(Very Weak), Passing(Weak), Aerial Duels(Weak)
Johnson, 24yrs
26games(1146mins), 6 goals, 6 assists, Shots/game=1.3
Pass Success%=87.7%, Aerial duels won/game=Nil, MoM=1
Offensive stats:
Key passes: 38, Total dribbles: 14, Total fouled: 9,
Total offsides: 4, Total dispossessed: 18, Total turnovers: 21
Passing stats:
Accurate/Total passes: 497/567
Accurate/Total crosses: 15/59
Accurate/Total long balls: 25/36
Accurate/Total throughball: 3/17
(Johnson’s character strengths): Long shots(Strong), Key passes(Strong), Holding on to the ball(Strong), Taking set-pieces(Strong)
(Johnson’s character weaknesses): Defensive contribution(Weak)
Lennon, 25yrs
23games(1572mins), 3 goals, 7 assists, Shots/game=0.8
Pass Success%=86.1%, Aerial duels won/game=0.2
Offensive stats:
Key passes: 39, Total dribbles: 21, Total fouled: 14,
Total offsides: 3, Total dispossessed: 26, Total turnovers: 14
Passing stats:
Accurate/Total passes: 490/569
Accurate/Total crosses: 14/54
Accurate/Total long balls: 8/12
Accurate/Total throughball: 4/6
(Lennon’s character strengths): Holding on to the ball(Strong), Dribbling(Strong)
(Johnson’s character weaknesses): Defensive contribution(Weak)
Bale, 22yrs
36games(3216mins), 10 goals, 14 assists, Shots/game=3.8
Pass Success%=82.5%, Aerial duels won/game=1, MoM=6
Offensive stats:
Key passes: 84, Total dribbles: 65, Total fouled: 51,
Total offsides: 5, Total dispossessed: 57, Total turnovers: 61
Passing stats:
Accurate/Total passes: 1194/1447
Accurate/Total crosses: 46/195
Accurate/Total long balls: 57/85
Accurate/Total throughball: 10/22
(Bale’s character strengths): Holding on to the ball(Strong), Dribbling(Strong), Through balls(Strong)
Just able to talk about this, i feel sick still. But reading u guys is making me feel better. Misery loves company. I love what Shard said- what is so wrong about the direction we are going?. I really thought that we are looking good for next season, with a couple more moves in the transfer market. If the offer is less than 25 mil i would not take it. Make him play, and eat the loss. Cant be less than nasri. That would be embarassing offer for player of the year. But most of all, we have other work to do, and i dont want us to be distracted- selling some players and clearing wages. And a couple more signings still – absolutely neccessary if walcott and song follow rvp. If we dont do this, it will be the worst summer disaster ever.
In conclusion, Walcott has a poorer pass success rate than the other 7 wingers, disastrous ball turnover to opponents @82 times, being caught offsides @23 times.
Oh I forgot about Bale, now theres a better winger 😉
& that shows how rubbish Lennon is lol
Theo’s stats look quite good on there, as I said thought he had his best season so far but I do find him incredibly frustrating
As for the man in the topic, RvP. I guess we could:
(1) Let him remain @club till end of 2013 & he goes free on a Bosman, however he should step down as captain of the club. Vermaelen as new captain with Arteta as new vice-captain.
(2) Put RvP on sale (Man City linked @38%, with Juventus behind @30% likelihood), though he could activate a Webster’s clause(??anyone care to share light on this), buy out his remaining contract & go on free if the club hold him to ransom.
No don’t make Vermaelen the new captain as apparently he’s being hunted by Barca & all our captains end up leaving,
I say make Squilacci captain 😉 haha
I think 20M will be enough for RVP at 28 he’s probably only got 2 more seasons in him with his normal injury problems
Cheers for the stats JM. I bet you would rather put them in a proper spreadsheet so they are easier to read for simple souls like me. I question those Nani stats though – where did you get them from?
If Song were to sign a new contract, I would make him captain. Would do him a world of good. Also would not mind Sagna or Arteta to become captain. Vermaelen would not be bad either.
@ Bryan 2:53 irreplaceable Cesc, I repeat something I posted from an earlier blog “If it wasn’t for Kroenke’s appointment of his (unexpirenced in footballing matters) corporate American trouble shooter to the position of “player buying negociator” or “director of football” if you want the European job title. Then we very probably would’ve had the very next best thing to Cesc before Cesc had even gone, one Juan Mata. We were that close to signing him an old Irish friend of my family’s assured me, and he told me this before it broke that Chelsea had snatched him from us with an offer of double what we’d offered.
Bryan, if I remember rightly Rasp is based in Hertfordshire. Relatively nice and easy to get to the games. Did I read somewhere you are a STH?
Dear RVP
You know Thierry Henry was a God. In the Pantheon of Arsenal greats he stands with Tony Adams, second only to your countryman Denis Bergkamp. A man with as much class and commitment to the club as technical ability.
A man who was afraid to fly but made us all soar above the clouds.
You know you were in the waiting room to that Pantheon, you were reading a magazine and drumming your fingers on the arm of the chair as the love of the fans was building your legend. But when the moment arrived for you to take the step through the door you decided not to.
and thats ok… except you don’t get to take the Thierry Henry exit template.
You can’t call us “guys”.
You can’t tell us you love us.
You can’t thank us and then piss on those thanks.
Who are you? You are no Henry, You are no Adams.
You are No Bergkamp.
You chose not to be.
Who are you?
let me tell you who you you were..
a crock for 7 years and superhuman for 1.
But human.
and not so damn super when removed from Song and Walcott who know how to load your gun a hell of a lot better than Arjen Robbena and Rafa Van Der Vaaaaaaaarrsssehole
Your flaws
You have the turning circle of a dump truck
You have the legs made of lego
You look great in a tailor made team. Tailor made to eliminate your negatives and accentuate your positives
Maybe you’ll have that room to move at your next club, maybe you’ll be given 5 players to shape there game around providing you with space and possession…
Maybe but one things for sure you have ruined your Arsenal legacy.
Now piss off and ask for a transfer, if its not about the money then you won’t mind foregoing your loyalty bonus…
Don’t call us “guys”
We are henry’s “guys”.
Regards
Gooners
Total
Yeh not to bad to get to games, I drive to Crouch End then park up & jump on the bus the rest of the way.
Excuse my thickness but what is a STH lol
Richie
Yes was very annoying missing out on Mata but I heard we could of had the deal tied up before the Chavs nicked him but we were nitpicking about the price & missed the opportunity
Apologies Bryan – season ticket holder.
@Bryan & TA,
I could foresee RvP, Walcott, Vermaelen(in 2015 after end of contract), Song(in 2014 after end of contract) all leaving the club. Coincidentally, Arsene’s contract expires in 2014 (He would be 64yrs by then, where he could move on to manage the France national team after their WC2014 campaign or a return to Ligue 1, i.e. PSG). He would see out his contract (w/o extension as well) & very likely to be naming his successor by the end of this season (Personally, I do not see the board & Ivan having the footballing knowledge of the European leagues to look for a new successor/manager themselves).
A list of core 1st team players with 2 or less years of contract running with us:
RvP (2013)
Walcott (2013)
Sagna (2014)
Koscielny (2014)
Song (2014)
Szczesny (2014)
Rosicky (2014)
Gibbs (2014)
@TA,
I got Nani’s stats from the similar source as the other wingers (whoscored.com) & cross referencing with (transmarket.co.uk). Those stats are only for EPL games in 11/12. (less CL, Europa, National team, EURO etc games)
Pardon the clamped paragraphs/wordings.
D98 – another poetic and passionate contribution! 🙂
Cheers JM. Top stuff. 🙂
Ahh, Richie
Now that explanation of the Mata story has a tad more common sense about it, add the idea that Valencia delayed just long enough to find out if the new manager of Chelsea was interested and you have a winner.
Total
Yes I am a STH but went to the Doctors & its all cleared up now 😉
been one for about 25 years now I think
JM
I do not see the board & Ivan having much knowledge at all, when it comes to football matters but apparently they are quite good at making money 😉
Ok I’m off, this is a good blog, I enjoyed interesting insights of others 😉
Bryan
Re the Mata urban myth.
Put yourself in the shoes of Valencia.
Why would you rush to sell one of your prized assets to Arsenal just before Chelsea had named their new manager?
You wouldn’t, It was never a first come first served situation.
Valencia kept Arsenal interested but they were never going to do the deal before the new if Chelsea would come in, and if they did the price would have and did go up substantially.
No fault of our manager or the board
Just a billionaire who has robbed the people of Russia to waste on paying the likes of John Terry £150,000 per week.
Red Arse or 26th can most probably answer this, or anyone else, so here goes.
When I was in business in certain industries if you left for any reason whilst under contract,and went to a competitor some contracts didn’t allow you to work within a certain radius of the company you worked for, though it was not always upheld as the Courts could say that one couldn’t deprive a person from making a living especially in a trade they specialised in.
So with RVP it would set a precedent if the club allowed him to leave (obviously according to valuation ) but he would have to go to a club abroad. It would be nice if for a change the club dictated the terms.
Hi, Kelsey, 🙂
Employment/Contract Law and Restraint of Trade Law can be extremely tricky and boring to many, so I am happy to leave that to the inestimable 26M. 🙂
But…………..just to set the ball rolling (did you like that? 🙂 ) I can give you a taste of the principle involved.
Restraining clauses in employment contracts are enforceable if an employer (ex-employer) has a legitimate interest which it is reasonable, in Law, to protect.
The usual reasons for doing so is where an employer (or ex-employer) wants to protect his business connections (customers/contacts) or his business secrets.
The restraint has to be reasonable, in Law, and is seen to sufficiently protect his interests and goes no further. It holds therefore that if a restraining clause is found to be unreasonable, then it will be void.
There are all sorts of caveats in applying that restriction, first and foremost, it must be a condition of a contract entered into and agreed by both parties, and would also cover the length of time and the distance such an exclusion covers.
Not wanting to make you all go to sleep, I do not think any such condition is included in any football player’s contract, there are no secrets at risk as it is the ‘labour’ of the player that is being bought and sold, or his contract has wound down, and distance from his previous employer is not a factor.
The European Human Rights treaty might also have a lot to say on any such restrictive practices.
Nice try, Kelsey, but I do not think it is a runner.
N.B. I am an accountant, not a lawyer, so everything I have written above may well be total bollocks!! 🙂
In a different light, Hazard has been explaining why he chose Chelsea over Arsenal and other clubs.
He states, reasonably, you would think that he had chosen the Chavs because they had played in the CL for many years and were the current holders. The implication being that he wanted to win trophies and they gave him a very good chance to do so.
Sound familiar?
At no time, that I could see, did Hazard mention the small matter of Chelsea’s oligarch coughing up £32 million for his contract, or the reported £200K per week for his salary.
THAT was the deciding factor when it came to any comparison with Arsenal. We could not and would not pay that sort of money for anyone, let alone an unproven 21 year old, regardless of his potential.
Incidentally, he was bought and the deal done and dusted, before Di Matteo was appointed as manager —- just like Matta was bought last Summer, before AVB was appointed.
Oligarchs don’t wait for permission from a manager to buy a player. Neither do they sack players the manager does not want, unless he agrees.
At Chelsea, the manager is more disposable than the player!
I’m trying to find an angle to come in with that expresses my feelings at the moment. However my brain is too frazzled to put a cohesive argument. So the thoughts in my head in no particular order are;
– no player is bigger than the club (even Messi)
– we will win the same with RVP as we will without him (nothing)
– it’s pure laziness to go to a ready made trophy winning team (Man City will win with or without RVP)
– we need one really bad season for things to change (getting 3rd last year only extends the pain)
– Cesc wanted to go to play for Guardiola (hope it was fun while it lasted)
– would you rather have supported Glasgow Rangers over the last 7 years or the Arsenal (and what about the next 7?)
– how have the Spuds managed to get Bale to sign a new contract? (I thought we were better payers)
– why have we got blue stripes on our shirts? (as of Fathers Day I now own one)
Yours,
A tit in a trance
Before I go, I have to say I agree with GN5 at 2:31. Shock, horror! 🙂
TA, @ 2:47, I don’t think there is any question of RVP breaking his contract. He has simply given notice of his intention not to to extend it. 99.9% of people leaving their jobs effectively ‘burn their bridges’. What is the saying? “Never go back!” 🙂
It is rather more honourable, for RVP, however disappointing, to give a year’s notice, than letting his contract finally run down (a la Nasri/Cesc) with vague comments and faint promises of ‘talks’, during the final year of their deals, before baling leaving their distraught and honourable manager to chew sour cherries!
Thing is, I believe, ManU, City, Real and Barca seem to think that even in FPP times their inflated wage models will hold thanks to the commercialization of their respective brand.
Clearly, Arsenal are not on the same line of reasoning.
Whatéver you’d do as a ‘marquee’ player caught in between I know not but I wish I wouldn’t have had posted something like RVP did.
Oh and one more thought…can you imagine RVP running down the last year of his contract then joining Spurs for free on a Bosman?
…with that in mind even I can now empathise with the Spuds retrospectively re: Sol Campbell
Hi Illy, 🙂
Good and very understandable thoughts!
This time next year you will have moved on from the RVP irritation, but your other points about us never winning with or without him is very valid.
The odds are so stacked against us with these oily teams, I am wavering in my support for the sustainable financial model.
So far the main beneficiaries of that model has been the ex-shareholders/Directors who have made hundreds of millions of pounds and disappeared, when they sold their shares, while the fans are still here and not too happy with their bleak lot in footballing terms, year after year.
Off now, before I get lashed to the main sail and flogged —- oh wait — ‘flogged’ — that is reserved for our best players!! 😦
Bloody hell Tim Payton just spoke on R5 and for once spoke my view!
They were trying to imply Usmanov was reflecting the feelings of many fans over RvP, Tim told then exactly how most Arsenal fans feel about RvPs statement.
Hi RA 🙂
RvP is effectively trying to break his contract by burning all his bridges: he is breaking terms of his contract such as confidentiality and not bringing the company in disrepute etc).
As such, he is putting Arsenal in an untenable position to let him go earlier, because an employee who has behaved/behaves like that cannot be kept employed in the sort of ‘business’ we are. That’s what yesterday’s statement was all about. To excuse him for that is unwise in my view.
Good point Magnolia. 🙂
I like your name – it is the name of one of my favourite films.
Hi Illy, good set of ‘head dumps’ 🙂
The blue stripe was added to make both RvP and the French players more at home, as depending which angle you take, you can see the French (horizontal arms) or Dutch (vertical arms) flags in them….
Fellow AAers.
I have thought long and hard about this and whatever I say, just remember I love Arsenal and it`s supporters , but I dont agree with the ambition or the direction with which the club is heading.
So therefore I am going to support another Team which I think can win something .
thanx you lot have made this situation easier to digest. there are a plethora of negative outcomes so i’ll leave them alone.
last season though robin became an alien there was always that invisible machete hovering over us. luckily robs new dna kept him fit. but every fall, knock, tackle etc…was horrible. so on the bright side at least we know from now that we wont have to rely on one man. watching the magic was great. watching a overly tight unit play for each other will be better.
afctid – bring it on.
TA,
In my comment @ 10:42, I had already mentioned the strategy of RVP and his agent to bring matters to a head by placing all parties into an untenable position.
—-“It is still notionally illegal for clubs/players to tap each other up, so the end of season ‘talks’ with Arsenal were again postponed until after the Euros, to establish a discrete delayed timeline with his ‘new’ club, and then the coup de grace was effected by releasing a carefully compiled ‘statement’ putting both himself and Arsenal into conflicting and untenable positions.”
That isn’t the issue.
I simply disagree that there has been a breach of contract by RVP. At the moment he is still an Arsenal player, so ipso facto no contract has been broken.
Neither can I agree that his statement is in breach of any condition of his employment, but is simply a deliberate attempt to bring matters to a head.
My last sentence at 5:55 sums up my employment law expertise, and RVP’s actions and statement are not important enough for us to fall out about …………. so off to bed for me ………again!! 🙂
That will be the Cornish Lezzer United team then Glicster! 🙂
Got to go. Hopefully we can chat tomorrow. 🙄
You know me too well Redders 🙂 and because your a mate, I`ve got you a season ticket right next to me !.
PS
Dont worry about Terry, he`s the manager sorting out tic tacs ( the green one`s) in the changing room. Come to think of it , he`s been quite a while, God knows what positions he`s running them through !.
Total
I sense your hurting more than most, but listen mate, you being from the same part of the world as your subject is irrelavant, your a great gooner, he`s a great let down .
Hi RA, let’s agree to disagree on that one. I would only repeat my 7.32 comment again. 🙂
Hi GLiC 🙂
It is a big disappointment indeed. I don’t mind him not renewing his contract, but to force his way out with the aim of not having to stay with us till his contract expires, and the way he has gone about it, is unforgivable for me. But I am sure, I am not the only one!
Have you been up and down to the North again today?
Is anyone else bored with the whole RVP thing now? I am.. I think we can (almost) all agree that this statement was entirely self serving. All his talk of future direction, trophies, love for fans etc is meaningless and patronising. The follow up story of Usmanov is another example of a self serving patronising statement. Both of which might have been coordinated, as both expressly seek to attack Arsenal. And City might have agreed to demanding that Robin demean Arsenal as price for the wages, because lets face it. City have looked to destabilise us for years. They fear us. And I think, they fear the success of our financial model. It totally shows them up, and shows Usmanov up too. So if they are willing to destroy us by buying players, why not to get one of those players, the one we loved most, to attack our club’s reputation?
Ok, so everyone may not agree on the last bits, but Robin’s gone, and right now, I don;t feel any sense of panic or concern over my club. We’ve been around a long time, and are model ensures we’ll be around longer.
Well said Shard
Bang on the money about Usmanov in my opinion, if it was all about winning trophies at any cost everyone would do it. There was only one plaything in the PL now there are two. Madrid and Barca have borrowed heavily to retain some balance.
But I think we should all take a look at Bayern Munich, with the exception of Neur and Schweinstiger I’d pass on the rest of their team, as would City and Chelsea, yet they made it to the CL final under an enforced by Bundesliga pay ceiling. It’s cheaper to watch football there and it’s more competitive (see Dortmund). Yes Munich earn a bigger slice than others but they earned it. Klopp and Dortmund and his young protégés have shown that it is possible to compete domestically on a FFP basis. If FFP is endorced across all Europe I look forward to teams like Detby having a chance to win the PL again….if we allow the sugar daddy’s to continue the essence of football will be lost.
Apologies if someone has talked about this before (I haven’t read all the posts), but isn’t Van Persie eligible to use the Webster Clause? So far, the club’s have a gentleman’s agreement in place to not use it. But if we negotiate hard enough to try and get a fee City are not willing to pay, does anyone think RVP and City could resort to threatening us with that? And carrying that threat out? Honestly, I could.
Just read the post, well said total. I 100% agree. I would just love one day for a player to be honest and come out and admit its all about the money. Lets be real here.. if someone offered me twice as much to do the same job it would be hard to say no. If Robin had come out and said ” I love the club and the fans and ideally i’d be here forever but unfortunately I see other lesser players earning twice as much as me at other clubs and I want a bit of that action” I would have a lot more respect for him. No player is bigger than the club and there is no certainty that RvP will ever have another season like this one but we all move on. What matters now is how will the club react ? Will we lay down and concede that we are average joes or try to use the next month to prove these deserters wrong and build a title winning squad ?
Yes Total
550 miles and 11 hours of listening to TalkSport about some chap called Robin Something !. 😦
Must go to bed, all I can see is white lines and cars !. 😯
GLiC, that my friend is a description of hell. 11 hours of Talkshite! You are made of sterner stuff than me 🙄
Barum, that is the spirit. Of course there is live after RvP – in fact, we won’t miss his goals next season as the others will step up. We will miss his leadership and inspiration he brought to the team, but we have to move on and there is plenty of time left to prepare for next season. The big problem is we will be once again in transition, but there is not much that can be done about it.
GiE, good points. Unfortunately, the difference with Bayern is that they are able to hold on to their players a lot better.
Shard, what is the essence of the Webster clause?
barumgooner
I`d have more respect for him if he left out the “I love the club and the fans ” bit , as he doesn`t. I suppose it would be hard for him to live on the reportably £140,000 pw with £5M signing on fee being offered by a club he “loves”, times are hard with a double dip recession and he must be struggling !.
I too have been offered a free season ticket and all expences paid add ons, but like I said, even though I love the club, I shall have to look to support another club who look like winning trophy`s because my mates support such teams !.
TA – The player can unilaterally break his contract if the said contract was signed more than 3 years ago. (2 years if he was over 28 when he signed) for compensation equivalent to the salary he would receive over the remaining part. So.. We COULD..lose RVP for just about 4 million..IF he and City are willing to get as low as that. I’m sure the walls of that Gentleman’s agreement will tumble at some point. And it wouldnt really shock me if both RVP and City were the ones to bring it about. I’m guessing that they won’t quite use it straight off. But they will use that threat to get us to lower our demands. if we still play hardball..Who knows?
Glic… very good.
Step forward Mr Vermaelen please. Our new dm and captain ?
Total
My problem with TalkSport ( no, not Adrian Durham, he actually makes me laugh ! ) is that when driving long hours I go through 4 shows and each show today talked about the same thing, RVP and Rangers, all that changed was the Hosts, you`ld think each show could talk about something differant, but no !. 🙄
Not that I want him to be next out of the door or anything !
Shard – thanks for the explanation. I did not know about that one! 🙂
But:
A. I don’t think van Persie wants to go MC – Juventus and maybe Barcelona are stronger options, and of course there is the Chavs who need to replace Drogba;
B. If MC are keen to get him, I guess they will be paying what is needed in the end. I cannot see them fighting all the way over money.
A swap deal involving Micah Richards and Adam Johnson would be acceptable I think.
But… like you Total, I think he is off to foreign shores.
Sleep now, Tomorrow I shall be driving all around the Cornish harbours and beaches and I cant get TalkSport in Cornwall ( It`s too fuzzy ). 🙂
chas
I was near Twycross Zoo today, anywhere near you ?, possibly an occupant ? 🙂
GLiC 🙂
Well, as he keeps telling everybody he wants to win something, my money is on him going to Celtic 😆
Shard if he went down that route he probably loses his loyalty bonus for seeing out his contract (I know it sounds silly). If he actually puts in a transfer request he loses that bonus…yesterday’s comments were in effect a sell me plea but it is not a formal request.
Has he bothered to go on twitter and face the music?
😀 TA good shout!
Terry Burton returns as Reserve Coach
“Having started my career at Arsenal as a youth player, and then as a coach, I know the history, class and values of this great football club,” he said.
“I can’t wait to get started in my new role and to meet the players and my new colleagues.”
Full story http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18731546
WHAT I THINK OF P MORGANS RANTS – MORON
Wenger does the best for the club possibly with his hands tied.
The board… Well the board the board…. and i suppose are trying to do somethings right,
Robin beleives he is bigger than the club
Robin is just a player
He dictates to no one.
Injured we support him
Allegations agaist him we support him
Scores goals we support him
He has one good season and hes off!
Hey robin us supporters are without a trophy for years how about standing with us?
The best description I read of Piers Morgan was Big M, small organ.
Actually the best thing I’ve ever heard about Piers Morgan was by Steven Fry during Uxbridge English Dictionary on I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue where existing words are given new meanings.
Countryside – To kill Piers Morgan
@ Bryan at 4:02 I was given a different take on that before it broke that Chelski had signed him, previously I was in a conversation with an old family friend complaining about where are we gonna be if both Cesc and Samir go? He told me we’ve got a great little playmaker on his way, then before the news came about the Chavs sighning Mata I was given the version of events. I can’t replicate it again but if you’ve got the time check it out and tell me your thoughts, its on the last but one blog “regrets” at 03:30 4/7 the family friend is an Irishman I’ve known for mor than 40 years.
@Bryan at 11:53 – I don’t only “think” RvP gave us one and a half good seasons in 8 years “I know it to be true”!! (last season and the one before). Durring all his protracted rape allegations the club stood by him, then durring the 6 years of constant injury. In my minds eye I’ve already started to look at RvP without my normal rose tinted glasses and I already see RvP (who I loved as our captain) as doing another Flamini, I think his motivation soared when he realised if he did really well he could put himself in the shop window. Its far too coinsidental that Nasri just like Flamini before him had his best season as and when a big money transfer became a possibility. So too RvP now. RvP engineerimg a move away has opened my eye’s.
@ Bryan re your comment at 2:28 “yes they did say that while paying back the debt we’d still be in a position to pay top wages” But as I said Abromovich’s arrival screwed all the normal predictions, because until he came everything in the prem was bassed on United. As the world moved into recession and things were being squeezed all round, putting downward pressure on wages and contracts in football, along comes Roman and his millions and starts paying players higher wages than anyone ever had and next he’s snapping up players for millions more than they are worth. He totally distorted the market and made others follow his lead, especially Manu’er who didn’t like the idea that they were no longer able to choose the cream of the crop.
glic,
Here’s some footage of me and my mates at Twycross laughing when we first heard that van Per$ie ‘loves the club’ and ‘respects Wenger and the fans’.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpwjO_VVwqE
TA.. my friend..
You can’t blame RvP for what happened..
For Arsenal and Holland big fan.. I do also dissapointed as you do..
But as I told you before.. we would never kept our captain (a striker) by brought another strikers.. and still keep trying to bring some others..
Untill now, we never heard any news about Midfielders (specially Attacking Midfielders) to come.. It all about strikers, winger, Goalkeeper, and Defender.. And sorry to say, that all france players.. M’villa, with all his bad habbits, I’m sure will also join Arsenal..
I guess Wenger want to gather some france players in Arsenal skuad. And that’s maybe why our new shirt add by ‘blue’ not only red and white anymore..
Maybe he obsessed by Arsenal 2004, with at least 4 frenchman, but my wildest guess is that Wenger is starting to make a French skuad to 2016 euro in France.. And two years ahead, Wenger will be the manager of French team..
And for that reason, I think Lloris, Gourcuff, M’Villa and Debuchi will arrive in emirates..
I still hoping a miracle do come true.. and RvP will stay..
Go gunners..
RvP -> “Stricken”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3moLkjvhEu0
Arsenal F.C. -> “Indestructible”
Arsenal Fans/Supporters/Bloggers/Forumers -> DISTURBED
============================================
Goodbye, RvP & Walcott.
Welcome, Falcao (A World Class winner not at any “big” clubs) & (3-4-1-2)* ?
*(3-4-1-2): 1xGK, 2xWingbacks, 3xCBs, 2xCMs, 1xAM/SS, 2xCF(who can move across the opponents back line of 4 or 5 to pin CBs/FBs)
Szczesny, Sagna, Koscielny, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Santos, Song, Arteta, Podolski, Giroud, (Falcao)
Subs: Martinez, Gibbs, Coquelin, Wilshere/Rosicky, Ramsey, AoC, Gervinho.
GLiC 8:15 …. Choose QPR.
Stats to make us feel better:
Podolski managed 0.55 goals per game in comparison to RVP’s 0.78. Poldi managed this from 1.7 less shots per game
If Podolski was to have RVP’s shots per game for last season he would have bagged himself 37 in 34!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VN2KRxTdjE
GIE,
Wasn’t he playing for a team that got relegated as well?
Slightly less miles on the road than GliC, but plenty of time to think.
Total: Thank you.
Persie: Fuck off to City. There you will be rumbled. You work well in an Arsenal team that revolved around you. Thank God I’ll never have to see one of your free kicks again. Your family will love Manchester and be much happier. After that Shanghai. Your Tintin hairstyle is an unusual choice for a married man.
Song and Walcott: Just go now. We know you are way bigger than the club.
Board/Wenger: Shut up doing your laundry in the papers/public. Start acting professionally. Don’t think you will placate the fans by hanging on to want-aways for one more year.
Anyone who does not want to play for The Arsenal. Out Now.
morning all,
Total, thanks for the post..
Looks like we’ve cancelled our trip to Nigeria?
There seems to be no confirmation by the Arse that Denilson is going back out on loan…
Hi Tony,
Cancelled trip to Nigeria?
Micky, looks like AvB has put in a cheeky 11mil bid for your ‘Oscar’..
micky, pre season tour…Nigeria is a no go for this season
Tony,
I know. All my hard work and he’ll end up down the road 😦
By far the worst news of yesterday.
Tony,
That’s terrible news for our Nigerian Fans. We know from many comments on here how much they have been looking forward to it. Any reasons?
To Arsenal fans/supporters/bloggers/forumers around the world ->
“Life Must Go On”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7fiN0IKOuY
“Come To Life”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ufvWZUZqAE
Micky,
Arsenal Football Club has announced it is reluctantly postponing its proposed trip to Nigeria this summer.
The Club has taken the decision as a result of complexities linked to the planned game against Nigeria on Saturday, August 5 in Abuja.
Arsenal marketing director Angus Kinnear said: “Bringing a top-level club to an international market is always complicated and logistically challenging. With the proposed match in Nigeria planned for early August, we could not get comfortable on everything needed to satisfy our requirements, so we have reluctantly taken the decision to postpone the team’s visit.”
Kinnear continued: “We have a huge and loyal following in Africa, and we are sorry that the team will not be visiting this summer. However, we have a long-term commitment to Nigeria and we are already making plans for a visit next summer.
“In addition, we also have some exciting forthcoming activities planned with our commercial partners in Nigeria – Emirates, Airtel and Malta Guinness, which will kick off in the next few weeks.”
Emirates are the presenting partner of the Arsenal 2012 Tour and Boutros Boutros, divisional senior vice-president of corporate communications said: “Emirates shares Arsenal’s disappointment that the team’s visit to Nigeria has been postponed. We look forward to working with Arsenal to bring the Club closer to its loyal Nigerian fans through new initiatives over the coming months.”
All further updates on Arsenal’s future activities in Nigeria will be communicated on http://www.Arsenal.com.
Chas…. Up yours
We did manage to get our commercial deals in though..
in a way im glad there will be less travelling made by our boys and we can fully focus on rejuvinating the squad in pre-season…
Although Wenger is always welcome to bring the boys down to Australia 🙂
Morning VCC,
has anyone ever told you that your gravatar looks like a meth addict
hahaha
The whole Nigeria game was a strange one anyway, I bet Wenger hates doing the tour to Far East anyway to stick a rushed trip to Africa in to the pre season schedule as well seemed one game too far. Maybe with new additions it makes sense to get spend extra time training rather than swanning round the world on planes.
Micky wholeheartedly agree on Song and Theo sign by next week or sell them.
We all know how many chances RvP missed last year, it’s not like we got one chance and he took it, in some games we had to give him three at least to get one. So I think the “geared up for him” assessment is very apt. I talked about being more ruthless during a number of games last season.
%’age of Goals coming from clear cut chances
RvP 68%
Rooney 65%
Adebayor 100%
Aguero 59%
Holt 31%
Jelavic 25%
Yakubu 88%
Clear Cut Chance Conversion
RvP 45%
Cisse 57%
Fletcher 70%
Yakubu 54%
Demba Ba 56%
Aguero 48%
Balotelli 40%
Jelavic 40%
The numbers above were the only ones I could access.
Hi Tony…. It’s GLiC in disguise……hehe
School run. Later.
🙂 haha, now i get the whole talk shite thing
um, there has been a bit of talk about this, but can any of the more knowledgable Arsenal die hards on here confirm that we did in fact sport a tinge of blue in our strip, lines or socks?
i think i heard it was in the 1940’s?
is there a site that shows all our home kits since Herbert Chapman revolutionised football?
Tony
This is the site
http://www.historicalkits.co.uk/Arsenal/Arsenal.htm
About the Nigeria tour.. A few days ago I read an article where the Nigerian minister for Sport (or football association chief-can’t remember) said that they won’t rush the laying of the pitch just because Arsenal is coming to play. They want a long term quality assured and it’ll take whatever time is necessary, and Arsenal is not important. SO if they weren’t ready to give us a decent pitch to play on, I don;t think we’d risk potential injuries. That MIGHT be the reason for the postponement/cancellation.
Morning all, we currently have no post for today. Can anyone pen a few words to lift our spirits on a rainy friday?
Cheers LB
Rasp
I think I owe you one, look in drafts, use it if you wish or on another day if you prefer.
Here, this should cheer u all up
GG,
What’s with the gnome costume?
Well in LB,
I was about to do: 10 reasons why we are already stronger than last season 🙂
(Got to number 4 so far!)
Not sure, it could be to keep the rain off. Should sell well in London then I guess
Actually, could have left it at 4 with everyone else to fill in the gaps, and call it “interactive”
I’ve stopped following RVP on twitter, though that act of defiance probably got lost amongst his 1.8 million other followers 🙂
GG,
Our athletes will run with umbrellas, not silly suits 🙂
Thanks LB, you’re a star
Ok, yes now I know what u mean
Those 1.8m are probably not that interested in football, more gentleman who sport Tintin hairstyles.
http://www.7amkickoff.com/2012/an-open-letter-to-persie_official/
Our friend Tim from 7am says it very nicely.
Morning all
It’s pouring and I’m fed up of getting wet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for the post LB, I think we’ll use it today. Friday can be a bit quiet but I think in the current climate there will be more interest in blogging.
Micky – you can have an extra 24 hours to work on yours then, can you produce it for tomorrow please 😉
Peaches,
You mean all four lines of it?
RVP can go now. At least let The Club get some remuneration for him on the market.
Is Gunnersaurus leaving as well?
Peaches
The other day some dickhead hacked my twitter. That wasn’t me who sent u a message?
Hi gnarley – I saw your response and then mine got hacked too 🙂
So you didn’t get here for an open-top bus parade this May ….. maybe next year will be the one??????
Peaches
I think The Board/Stan Cranky is putting a spanner in th gear box of that open top bus.
Micky – could you get to more than 4 if you’ve got more time? Six maybe? And then bloggers can fill in the rest ………………
Tim’s post has made me cry – bloody footballers 😦 I loved the fact that we were now a team again, with a leader, playing with smiles on faces and real enjoyment. Bloody smashed it all up that greedy idiot 😦
You could be right gnarley, maybe they’ve ordered a new bus and it’s not going to be ready for a while.
Do we need Usmanov?
It seems Mr Usmanov thinks we do. I reckon won’t shut up now, which can only be good for those with ambition for The Club.
*he
On R. V. Persie, Red & White and Postponed Nigeria Tour
RVP
1. Considering RVP’s age, rational thinking states categorically that if he has the ambition of winning trophies, he must go somewhere else OR stay with Arsenal for the rest of his career hoping in one of those years, Arsenal will win. For Arsenal fans, the Latter is most preferred, for RVP it’s the former, because by the end of 2012/2013 season, he’ll be 30yrs and thus in the twilight of his football career.
2. RVP has no Singular right whatsoever to dictate a direction he wants the club to go. If he’s not content with being captain and thinks he has enough money, there are so many football clubs available to be bought so that he can dictate for them.
R&W
1. The fact that R&W had to wait till this time to release such statement speaks volume about their original intention: get the Unsuspecting Fans disgruntled with the club and possibly force a revolution.
2. If the R&W holding has such Vision as stated in their statement, let them buy up another club and steer it in such direction. And if they insist on Arsenal, then it only means they have some clandestine intentions.
3. Original intention revealed in the very last paragraph of the released statement.
Postponed Nigeria Tour
As a Nigerian, I think it is in the best interest of the club to take such decision.
1. The Location of the intended match is a hot spot for unrest.
2. The pitch of the stadium is not in anyway near the standard of the one at the Emirates, and the basic requirement cannot be guaranteed.
Time to move on …………
New Post …………..
Timmy – I thought the same thing yesterday about why Usmanov doesn’t up sticks and buy another club but I think there are rules about owning more than one football club so he’s kind of stuck with us. I’m sure someone will come on with more information about that.
Richie
In reply to your comments at July 5 at 1.08, 2.29 & 2.52
I read the bit about your irish friend & the Mata transfer in the “regrets” blog & was interesting 😉
No I dissagree with you RVP gave us 4.4 good seasons check out my comments on July 5, 2012 at 2:34 pm lol
& your last comment about the billionaires changing the dynamics of transfers & wages I totally agree with you but we are still not coming near to competing with Man U in buying players as we have never even paid more than 17M for a player so I don’t think they told us the truth
A quote I took says
“Usmanov and Moshiri believe Wenger’s hands are being tied by the stance of the club’s board and they fear the club’s best players will continue to depart unless changes are made”
Whether you like them or not & I guess most of us don’t, I totally agree with that quote 😦