To tour or not to tour, that is the question
This morning the BBC announced that Robin van Persie would not be going on the club’s tour of Asia, because he needs to stay behind and ‘work on his fitness’. Obviously the club don’t really expect anyone to believe that, so why they can’t be honest I don’t know, but I suspect it’s all connected with the general lack of cojones when dealing with players and contracts. And not entirely coincidentally there are now rumours of bids from Juventus, Man City and Man Utd. The Juventus rumour is that their bid is only £8m – have they not seen on transfermarkt.com that his value is £42m?! Honestly, what the hell are they on?
No one – not even Man City and their bottomless bank account – is going to pay £42m for a 29 (next month) year old so I don’t know who came up with that valuation for the website, but equally £8m seems to be rather taking the mick.
News of the bids – well, I say news, there is no actual hard evidence of any bids in the public domain, and thus all info should be taken with a gritting lorry full of salt – set off a bit of a flurry on twitter, but nowhere near as much as the announcement that the Arsenal captain (yes, still – can you even believe that after his recent statement? More evidence of no bollocks at managerial and Board level) wasn’t going to be on the plane east.
My personal view is that unless he has actually signed for another club and the money is in the bank he should go. He is contracted as an Arsenal player and therefore when it comes to playing and training he should do what he’s damn well told to do. However, it doesn’t appear that anyone at Arsenal has the will to enforce this.
“But he’ll be a disruptive influence if he doesn’t want to go,” said a few on twitter when I put my view forward. Well that’s easy – put him in a different hotel. He doesn’t need to be anywhere near the rest of the squad if he’s going to be disruptive. I want the players who want to be at Arsenal to have every opportunity to succeed in the new season.
“But we’ll have to get used to playing without him,” was another point. As was “But what if he gets injured?” I didn’t say he had to play on the tour, did I? Just that he has to go, and shouldn’t expect to be let off all his contractual obligations just because he’d rather not fulfill them.
I also think Arsenal should hold out for £15m at least. Others would rather just see the back of him for any amount of money if he wants to go – £8m from Juventus is fine by them. I would rather see him sit in the reserves if he doesn’t want to play. There’ll be another transfer window along in January, we can get £8m for him then just as easily as getting it now. If he feigns injury or plain refuses to play then he should stop being paid. Let him sue. By the time the case is over he’ll have missed half the season, so he still won’t get everything he wants. And if we get that far, push him onto the pitch in the last minute of the first Champions League game so he’s cup-tied, just to show him he can’t mess Arsenal around.
I’m not saying don’t sell him. If he wants to go, of course sell him, but on two conditions: we can get a fair price and it’s on the club’s terms. I’m getting fed up with players running the game. I know owners will take advantage as well if you let them, but let’s work on one thing at a time. All I’m saying is that getting a bid is no reason not to send him on the tour. The only reason not to send him is if there are signatures on contracts and money in the bank.
It’s not petty or spiteful to expect players to fulfill their contracts and play and train when and where they’re asked. They signed a contract! That’s why contracts exist, so that people don’t get out of their obligations – obligations that in this case are paid for by every Arsenal supporter.
So pack his bags and sit him on the plane. Perhaps it will be a small deterrent to others thinking of doing the same thing.
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angryofislington 
Exactly he should be on that plane why are we making it easy for him when he making it so difficult for us. No way should we sell for anything under 18 million id rather we kept him on the bench and played him when we 5-0 up in champions league game so hes cuptied! Man utd have plenty of money they had a bid of 27 million turned down for lucas moura so they can meet the 20 million we want or jog on!! I have a feeling this will drag on like the nasri situation and we wont adequately reinvest the money for him!!
I think the issue could be that the Arsenal board have backed Robins decision not to go because if he was to get injured it would be a disaster.
Yes, I already covered that in the post.
If he IS leaving what would be the point of parading him on tour to thousands of Arsenal fans and then have him go?
Don’t parade him then. But still take him.
he is a paid employee of arsenal he still gets paid his massive salary sitting on his hole in london doing nothing why should we bend over backwards make him travel and make an example of him, i dont care what job you give him ball boy maybe
We should keep him to his contract, he should go on the tour, after the new year he may well change his mind, look at Tottenham Modric £35 mil or nothing !!! come on the Arsenal Board, where are your “b—s if you get £30 mill then let him go, but abroad, not in the Pem.
So Wenger maintains Arsenal can compete with the big boys. Although the odds are against him,he can make the gunners competitve. How?By playing direct and reduce the number of passes.If he opts for the old style of incessant passing,rest assured the gunners will be out of ep l reckoning by Xmas and in the process hasten his departure.
if wilshere back and we buy the likes of cazorla our system is fine but i do agree unless we buy i should be more direct
This is so funny! You would be an amazing manager haha.
Ha ha! Yes I would! Ha ha!
RVP hasn’t asked for a transfer.Since they bought him for only a small fee it makes sense to keep him for another season thereby forgoing the 20 million pounds.that is if the gunners are not dazzled by the money thet can get for him.
Even if he were to ask for a transfer,the gunners can put a high price deterring possible suitors.
I don’t know. Letting him go to MU will only tarnish the reputation of Arsenal.It will make the gunners significantly weaker because he is a proven epl scorer. I know the twonew strikersr are of genuine quality but have not been proven in the epl.
This could be the watershed season for Wenger. If the gunners fail to challenge ,I believe the fm hastaken the gunners as far as he can. Time for another guy to take over.
Our only issue is the fact that people in higher Arsenal hierarchies do not have the balls to do this, even tho we have every fuckin’ right to do it. The fans deserve this as well. We travel up and down the country, invest and support this club, we need to see this club behaves in a manner that pleases us. Let us be the bully this time. Fuck playing nice, who cares about playing nice?? No one, not even a player in which you invested 7 long years of wait, just for him to fuck off after a short good period. I also hate the fact that the rest of the squad is apparently supporting his decision, whatever that is. This means only one think. THEY’RE ALL THE SAME
Have you a link for the squad supporting his decision? I haven’t seen it.
Nice post Angry. Play hardball with the fucker.
Here’s your link: silence! Speaks louder then words
Ah, there isn’t one, you mean.
Arsene and ivan just have to grow some balls n show that we cant be toss around every summer. If RVP wants to prove unbearable then stuck his ass in da reserves n sell him in january. Am tired of players being unreasonable n arrogant, its time arsenal makes a statement we cant be messed with. We claim to be a big club nw is the time to show the big stuff.
He shouldn’t go. The tour is about the team. RVP would simply be a sideshow. Put a price tag on him. GBP20mill take it or leave it to the bidders then ignore the situation. RVP has more than paid for the seasons of injuries. If he hadn\’t had that 1 great season Arsenal wouldn\’t be in the Champions league this year, so he\’s fully paid up, even if he leaves on a free next year.
If he would have been \’average\’ last year, I don\’t think many would worry about him leaving for GBP15mill this year. The 2 new signings make the arse stronger this year even without RVP
The point is if he had a average season he would be jumping at a new contract at arsenal. He had a great year and now wants out…… fine board shud say ur goin on tour and sitting in reserves till either our valuation is met or u sign a new contract!!
nasri had an average season, went for the money. RVP cant go ‘for the money’ in another year. We cant get approaching GBP20mill for him in another year. get rid now. Walcott is a different kettle at his age. RVP has one more ‘good’ season in him. I think there’s a greater then 50/50 he will get injured next year… lucky last season.
If you look at the pictures of RVP in training you can see he doesn’t look fit, The eyes in particular
Holding out for more than $8mil should be a priority. But Van Persie has already decided to part ways with Arsenal. He decided this as far back as the start of last season. I believe he would’ve left along with Fabregas and Nasri but the verdict was still out on him and whether he could go an entire season unscathed. He got that from last season and now he knows that other suitors are definitely looking at him.
This is where I blame Wenger. He doesn’t provide the springboard for a lot of other guys to succeed, unless they are able to get in his face somehow. Chamakh can’t become a bad player overnight after going 8 for 8 and how come Park Ju-Young can be as prolific for his country and not for Arsenal. Wenger has always had the problem of this first and second team syndrome and he needs to stop and allow everyone to flourish on his team. What’s worse is that he seems to hand the benefit of the doubt to guys that really don’t want it anyway. I would rather see him give more opportunities to a guy like Chamberlain or Chamakh or Ju-Young than to see Arshavin running around looking like he doesn’t even want to be on the field. Wenger needs to give his players a little more motivation and treat all with some respect cuz the guys he’s giving respect to are taking him for granted.
How do we know that he has refused to go on the Asia tour? How do we know that this is an RvP power play? How do we know that this wasn’t a mutual decision with the club? Does it really matter anyway? I think there is a lot of handwringing, particularly on Twitter, about absolutely nothing.
RvP is leaving Arsenal. He has made that clear and it’s going to happen. It makes very little sense to bring a player on a promotional tour who you (the Club) pretty much know is going to leave. He won’t make a good ambassador for the Club (can you imagine the mutual awkwardness of RvP participating in an autograph session with Arsenal fans?) and will be a huge distraction.
Nasri, by the way, was different. Yes, he wanted to leave, but the club was intent upon keeping him at the time of the tour. And so he went. It was the Malaysia tour last year when Wenger said that we couldn’t consider ourselves a “big club” or show others that we actually have “ambition” if we couldn’t hold onto Nasri and Fabregas — I highly doubt he would have said those things if he genuinely thought that we wouldn’t be able to keep them.
I have a feeling city only gettin involved in niang deal so they have more power with rvp…. i bet they say that they will pull out of niang deal if we sell to them rather than utd ir juventus!!! i personally dont care where he goes whats the difference i mean when adebawhore joined the spuds just about summed up most footballers these days. I would hand the captaincy to wilshere a local lad arsenal true and true been there all his life!!
He can’t train or play stupid. What if he gets injured? £20-£30m down the toilet for a player that doesn’t want to be there.
He dosnt have to play “stupid” he still should travel. hes a paid employee of arsenal why should he still recieve thosands a week sitting on his ass in london on an extended holiday!
It’s always disappointing when someone arrives on my blog and decides to insult me and in this case call me stupid. Even so I think I should be kind to him because he is clearly of limited intelligence himself.
So James, if you read what I wrote properly you will see that I said I don’t care if he plays or not; that is not the point. And as for training, have you not seen the pictures? He’s doing that already.
As for your assertion that he is worth “£20-£30m” – who exactly is going to pay £30m? Bids appear to be half that or less, judging by the media reports so far, including ones that have come out since I posted this blog.
He can’t do a medical while he’s on tour……and also he might get injured meaning we wouldn’t be able to sell him. There’s no point in mugging the fans off pretending he’s staying. Also, why select someone knowing they’re going to be old instead of giving someone fighting for a first team place a chance to play? We also need funds to get a new striker, and we’ll want them to train with us before the start of the season, so Arsenal are looking to do a deal ASAP. Only 1 month until the start of the season so we need to do our business and get prepared sharpish. There are plenty of good strikers out there who would relish taking RVPs place, and after we’ve sold him we’ll have the dosh to buy the lucky one.
Most people believe big companies and corporations know what they are doing. That they are fully in charge of their affairs. Often as we deal with these companies it becomes apparent that they are a bit ‘Mickey Mouse’. G4S for example are running the Olympic security, or should I say running away from the Olympic security. We must not assume things are rosy. I’m quite sure in years to come, revelations about this Arsenal board & club will arise from all directions. We will find our board to be ‘Mickey Mouse’, rest assured.
One good thing is if we do sell RVP and replace him with a quality striker we will have three for the price of one. Podolski, Giroud and Mr Newbie the RVP replacement. Suddenly we will have a powerful trio. Best let RVP on his way. After 8 seasons let’s wish him well. Very few foreign players stay that long. If Monsieur Wenger then keeps his recent word and buys a quality midfilder such as my favorite Santi Cazorla, or Nuri Sahin, Ganso the new Riquelme, Etienne Capoue the new Viera etc, we could have a bit of a team. Maybe RVP has accidently woken Arsene Wenger up and even if he does go we could end up with a pretty good team. Definitely not ‘Mickey Mouse’!
I think you are right in that he should go, stay in a different hotel and watch the games. His agents will do all his dirty work anyway.
useless arsenal they dont know how to keep their best players. its official arsenal is a selling club. maybe we should become arsenal academy f.c, how do expect to attract top players with this nonsense. wenger should resign along with hillwood and gazidis.they have no respect for arsenal supporters.
I agree the respect for the fans is completely gone ever since we moved from highbury, they lie through their teeth constantly to the point that we are becoming a laughing stock. Our best players want to leave the first chance they get a change is needed but it will never happen wenger makes his bosses money as far as there concerned he doing a great job im sure they would rather make money than win trophies, thats what you get for selling club to a yank who has no connection with football or arsenal.
My take on the RVP saga is that he preferred to play out the final year of his contract and then agree a new one (provided he had seen the Arsenal hierarchy show ambition i.e. spend money on quality players) The hierarchy prefer to cash in on what they regard as a declining asset. So tell me, who is being disloyal, Robin or the hierarchy? How much will he fetch? Well, I don’t believe it matters a damn that he is in the final year of his contract. There are umpteen clubs after him and none of them can wait to get him on a free. They will be bidding against each other and the £42m is not that far-fetched: my guess would be a mite more than the £30m minimum set by Arsenal. There is not a top club anywhere who wouldn’t love to have him. Yes, he is 29 – but often players who have lost a lot of playing time (like him) tend to go on longer. Last season could be the first of a sequence of ‘golden’ seasons.
as much as id love 42 million or even 30 it wont happen he is turning 29 final year of contract i dont care how good he is, if we get 20 i think we doing well , we dont hold any of the cards they all kno he wants to leave and in january he free to talk to any club and sign for free! I do agree to some extent regarding your ambition point but if he stays we could win the league with rvp poldi and giroud up front and wilshere back we are a serious side i think he wants a big pay day to be honest!!
Unfortunately Robin hasn’t made our job easier with his fricking announcement. This + age + his injury-prone past + his expiring contract are resulting that the bids were low for him. It’s wrong to believe that we could get Ł20m for him, holding out for such a nonsense deal would let this transfer drag on till late August.
The most essential think would be to get the fee, regardless the exact amount – up front and not in installments. Thus we could re-invite the money in other players on different positions. I.e. Santi Cazorla would be a perfect addition to our squad, he’d be better than Mata would have been last year. He wouldn’t cost more than Ł15m.
Absolutely superb and what most long standing Arsenal fans believe, I suspect.
If we take a ‘contract’ out on Ivan No Bollocks will you take the job?!
Only kidding Ivan – don’t worry it’s not South Africa!
So you want to send RvP on a nice expenses paid holiday rather than make him sweat on the training field. Plus give him plenty of exposure in a market where another club is likely to be the one exploiting his ‘popularity’ there…..
So you want to make him sweat on the training field so that some other club can take advantage of his fitness?
Why would he need to have any exposure? Keep him inside the hotel. And the total cost can’t be more than a week of his wages, so hardly significant.