So bye-bye RvP. On the face of it £24m for a 29-year old injury prone striker is not bad business for the seller. The BBC are reporting that he was basically kicked out, having decided he wanted to stay. I’m not sure whether to believe that and maybe the truth will remain somewhat shrouded for a while yet. But that’s not the important thing at the moment, the important thing is how we start the new season with the players who want to be there (and Van Persie getting a niggling hamstring injury that turns into a Diaby-esque saga).
But the problem we have is that this looks like a regular occurrence. Players have had enough of Arsenal after a while and want to leave. Why is that? Perhaps the main reason is that they don’t think they are going to have any medals to show at the end of their careers. Arsenal basically compete for two trophies each season, whereas the other top teams compete for three or four. If they think after several years of trying and perhaps a couple of near misses, “I’m coming towards the end of my career and what will I have to show my grand-kids if I stay here (apart from a fat pile of cash)?” then maybe they think they’re better off elsewhere. At Arsenal’s level players don’t expect a completely blank mantelpiece when they retire, they expect a few medals on it.
At Liverpool, who recently have been much further away from one of the two trophies that Arsenal compete for, they at least pick up the odd cup. We all know that unfortunately being in the CL is more important all round than winning the world’s oldest cup competition these days, but when you look back at the end of a career you’re not going to be smiling fondly on those fourth places, are you? You want the picture of you japing around with a silver pot and a medal in your hand.
I’m thinking that maybe younger players don’t worry about this – for most of them the thought of their football career having an end scares them shitless anyway, so they avoid it – but once they’re past their mid-twenties and have a family, they start thinking, “What’s my legacy here?”
Some people say the problem is Arsenal let players get to the last year of their contracts. That’s just the manifestation of the problem – the problem itself is that the players are quite happy to get to the last year of their contract, because it gives them more options. How is that going to be addressed?
Twitter: @AngryOfN5
angryofislington 
Win something? Would that be such a novel idea?
Footballers are lazy and greedy. Rather than staying and helping their club win trophies they all want to move to the ones who will pay them loads and give them instant success. If Cliche, Adebayor, Cesc, Nasri, RVP etc. had stayed at Arsenal they would probably win the league, but they all went to clubs who were ‘guaranteed’ to win. Arsenal continue to do things in the right way, but sadly with the billionaires at other clubs it is not good enough anymore. My advice is go and watch your local lower league/non league team. That is the real football now. Anyone who watches the pampered pricks in the premier league paying a minimum of £50 to get in is, frankly, a bit of a mug.
The truth is players are judged by what they achieve , not by how many years they played without achieving. Arsenals problem ilies with wengers idea of building for the future, it never seems to come. Secondly,we have a squad full of has beens,and never beens ie. diaby,bentnail,djourou,walcoot,etc , who are not premier league material. They all draw wages and this reduces the money available for quality players.
Arsenal can no longer be thought of as a top club.
There are now only 3 teams in England that have got a chance of winning the league anymore.
Money rules in football, and, Arsenal can’t compete.
I now support a mid table team, and, that will not change for a long long while.
He might have been willing to stay, but he wasn’t signing the contract so our hand was forced. I don’t even want to think about the possibility that Arsenal always planned to sell him, but Wenger said Podolski and Giroud were brought in to replace him. Both transfer happened before THAT statement.
In my opinion, it is a characteristic (rather than a problem) of our policy to sign and groom young talent. Other clubs sign mature players in their twenties so a long term contract takes them past their sell-by dates. In contrast, a long-term contract with a nineteen year old only takes him to his prime. The issue can only be avoided (not solved) by either winning trophies for the youth, or signing mature players in their prime.
Everyone leaves because Stan wants the £. But the club have no business sense, they are still waiting for installments from Barca for the Cesc deal – yet rather than demanding it they will sell Song to them.
I’d be quite happy to show my grand-kids a fat pile of cash
Yes, but once you’ve had a fat pile of cash for a while the novelty wears off, Brian. So I’m told.
I blame van persie’s grandma….
I don’t understand everyone thinking this is a done deal, van persie has yet to agree personal terms some of which may be;
1. Will I get a private room in the treatment centre?
2. Will I be able to bring my own food into the treatment centre?
3. Who will pay for my subscription to ArsenalPlayer whilst in the treatment centre?
4. My family won’t have to move oop north
5. I won’t have to sit next to rooney on the coach
6. I won’t have to sit next to ferdinand on the coach
7. I won’t have to sit next to fferguson on the coach
8. Why can’t i sit next to Milos Krasic on the coach
9. I want a gurney with alloys
Hi Phil,
I think there is a composite of many reasons. First of all is selfishness. Narcissism. Money. Simple as that. Amongst other things, also, we must imagine an English player playing abroad say for Inter Milan. Would we expexct him to play for 8 years or more for them. Probably not. Of course then we wouldn’t expect them to betray their team and go to the rivals. But Sol Campbell did it the other way round and became an Arsenal hero.
In war we tend to go to war for our country, or Commonwealth (as history shows).Our loyalty is, for whatever reason, to the local. Our country and our local club. Foreign players will usualy not feel that. Some people, too, have a habit of ‘biting the hand that feeds them’. It’s independence that is their main value and that is what drives them. Often those characters have harsh personalities. Both Nasri and Van Persie had troubled characters, of that their is no doubt. Flamini too. We expect loyalty of those whose loyalties lay elsewhere to ours. Also we must remember that clubs may drop and rid themselves of players on a whim too. So Clubs can be very disloyal.
What for me always leaves a bad taste in the mouth is the disloyalty to the fans. The fans love a player. This is the equivalent of being dropped by a boyfriend/girlfriend for no reason. RVP was loved so much by patient, trusting and adoring fans. It’s there that his ethics start to fester. We have loved him and related together in a mutual dance. He is a product of our love. How we love and respect those loyal footballers who begin and end their careers at the same club. Viva Tony Adams we love you. Few though will ever follow Adam’s example. All we can ask is for managers to prepare for this and not take the sucker punch like Wenger did last year, or Levy is this year.
Anyway thankfully Wenger prepared to be floored this year. My only hope is that Arsene does reinvest the RVP money, because up to 60 games is a long hard season. There will be times Podolski and Giroud are out, and we are still one striker short of being a Royal Flush. Nowdays two teams are needed at the topmost level, that is clear, and that is because any player may choose to leave at any time.
From POV of the hierarchy, selling a declining asset like Robin for £24m is mighty good business. In fact most of the Arsenal selling deals have been good business – from Anelka and Overmars to Nasri and RVP. I would hazard that a lot of those players – including Robin – could have been persuaded to stay, had the hierarchy so desired. And until the Emirates, despite selling off many good players for handsome profits, the Club still managed to achieve fantastic success. That changed when Danny & co got greedy: they charged Arsene with the task of winning major trophies with a zero nett transfer expenditure. And that is something no manager can do. A fairly small nett transfer budget would have allowed him to bring in the quality that would have won Arsenal players a hatful of medals. Which would probably have made them (and certainly us) happy.