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Arsenal Thread

Robin van Persie has announced he will not be extending his contract at Arsenal, with a statement on his official website reading: "I’ve thought long and hard about it, but I have decided not to extend my contract. You guys, the fans, have of course the right to disagree with my view and decision and I will always respect your opinions."
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On Sky Sports

Shame really, I hope he doesn't end up at City.
 
Would've been surprised to see Giroud, van Persie and Podolski, 3 left-footed strikers (even if Lukas can play on wing as Robin can).

Makes sense that that those two were brought in and especially when you consider they're not 'youth' but ready made replacements (or at least you HOPE they can replace him) with Wenger and Arsenal perhaps thinking it's unlikely Robin will extend.

They were replacements more than 'additions' after all it seems and that makes sense. The 3 of them would've been too good to be true and maybe too much.
 
Sad day for Arsenal... we lost our last remaining world class player... hopefully our youth can take over next season. (Wilshere,Ramsey) Walcott is a lost cause to me.

I can expect Podolski to do well...Giroud is a guess.

Oh well!
 
I knew RVP was more concern for a new club then EUROS w/ him rumored to be on the phone every chance he got. NO REAL , NO Barca and to win with C£ty is not the same. I hope he goes to JUVE or China :LOL: . For me I thought it was too good to be true that he was fit and leave now . Is no surprise I would love for us to get the double this season.
 
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If he is not extending, then we might keep him for another season and let him go for free? you never know....:((

Oh well, it looks like Wenger already sort of knew and brought in people to fill the void, so I am not too worried, just hope they can hit the ground running.

Also I would be very suprised if he went to City, I see him going abroad.
 
the problem is that the club cannot hold onto hits assets, it is a big problem. we complain that we are overpowered by the uber rich clubs, but this is the real issue.
 
Arsenal.com said:
"

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 fulfil his commitments to the Club.

"We are planning with ambition and confidence for next season with Arsenal's best interests in mind."
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Well, looks like if RVP was tapped up and motivate to make a statement the Club counter-it with such statement. I`m sure Arsenal will sell him ,but on the last minute. Funny , he said the talks was not about contracts nor salary...but is having another meeting when Ivan returns in 2 WEEKS :CONFUSE: holiday.Surely, RVP has to buy himself out to leave or hand in a request form.

I bet RVP wanted RM or Barca , CL title must be on the mind. He`ll be 29 next month. Arsene is usually flogging them off at this stage. I can`t be mad at him really, disappointed to a degree it`s footballer in the modern age.
 
Well it finally happened! At least this didn't turn into a saga. He says financial terms aren't his priorities, but this is all smoke screen isn't it?
I'm not saying I would stay if I was him. He has peaked, he'll be 29 and a footballer's career is short, especially when you have had as many surgeries as him.
I don’t care anymore for players leaving to earn silly money. Cash rules everything around us. I'm not surprised.

What really bothers is the way he’s gone about the whole situation, breaking the silence like this.
If he was going abroad he could have stayed low profile. But the way he is doing things, it's a way of creating turmoil and move ASAP.

If he’s going where I think he’s going, then he realised by now he was going to be hated anyway, so he decided to deliver the first blow. The club's statement clearly shows they didn't expect this.
He has just thrown shit at the fan and ran for shelter.

His people had already met with City earlier in April/May, this was wide open for everybody to see.
All of this is no surprise to me TBH. A major surprise would be if he stayed.

This came 1 day after Arsene Wenger wrote an article on Eurosport saying how he wanted RvP to stay and end his career at Arsenal, and how Arsenal has been by his side through thick and thin (many injuries and personal problems circa 2006). AW kinda exposed him a bit. So I think this was his way of responding.

Let's not forget that RvP's agent was the same who oversaw the departures of Cesc, Nasri, Henry and others. And that this agent is David Dein's son. I don't know how bitter the Dein family still feels about him being kicked out of the Arsenal board. But I'm just throwing it out there.

Anyways, there will be life after Van Persie. I don't know how much money he would command in his final year, but if they paid £25m for bloody Nasri, then I can certainly imagine more for the best player of last season.
I hope Arsenal does an auction with the likes of Real Madrid, Juventus, Barcelona and $hity.

But one thing is certain: he will not stay his final year. This statement has just ensured that won't happen.
 
I don't really mind. Simply cannot expect loyalty in football.
This might be a blessing in disguise. The club cannot depend so much in only one guy. I'm all for it, let's see what life without Van Persie is like. I'm kind of curious and excited.

I don't mind him leaving, but what really bothers me is this statement of his and this bullshit about the future of the club. F*ck that, just be honest saying that going elsewhere you will be earning more money plus winning silverware. But don't give us this rap about "the direction the club is taking".

Arsenal paid his wages during entire seasons which he spent injured, and we never heard him complaining about the way the club was managed then. Funny eh? Now he is what he is thanks to the club and Arsene Wenger, and after a great season he thinks he can dictate how the club is run, and act like a prick?

It's a shame. He could really do without this statement. The guy was a hero until yesterday, now he's being a bit of a cunt if I may say so.

In the end, you gotta feel for Arsene Wenger. How many times will the man be stabbed in the back like that??
 
I want to be a City fan. Look around league, spot two strikers better than what they have (Rooney and RVP) - approach both. Unsettle both. Maybe buy one and weaken rivals.

Easy sport to win this.

In all seriousness though - I think he'll go abroad. Always struck me as a reasonable dude and he must know what it'll look like going to City. Plus he wouldn't necessarily be a starter there.

Barca makes sense, depending on Villa's recovery.
 
Beach, your commentaries about Man City are extremely unfair.
I agree with you to a certain extend. Man City are spoiling the market. But what Man City is doing now, United and other English clubs have done (to a lesser degree, but basically it's quite the same) with other clubs from lesser leagues...). Professional football is a world of dog eat dog. Don't get moral when your own club is eaten now, whereas it has eaten dozens of foreign clubs.
If tomorrow United get a better owner than the Glazers, who can invest billions and buy Messi, Ronaldo, Iniesta, Xavi, Neymar and Zlatan, you will not complain. So please stop your crocodile tears.

As for RVP: i've always said he is not world class...(this is a joke).

Seriously: his fantastic season might well be a one off and in the near future he can be injured half of the time once again...maybe this is good for Arsenal. Now they can sell him for lots of money. Arsenal is more than Van Persie.
 
But, given that he's come out and said he won't stay, coupled with being in the last year of his contract has basically screwed Arsenal.

Only a batsh*t crazy team would pay serious money for a player they could get next season for free.

Such as the team that paid £25m for Nasri in the same situation last season.

Also, @ Gerd - If a team bought all the players you just mentioned, even you would agree with me that they were ruining football. Football should have the talent base spread out across teams in a league.
 
I agree with you beach, my point is that football was already ruined before Chelsea and City came. Look, i'm not any better than you...i'm sreaming fire because the Belgian teams can't competer anymore.They can't compete since the '90's. Now you are sensing something similar regarding Man Utd... So basically we agree with each other. My only criticism is that you should have thought football was ruïned when i said it was...

Of course this doesn't stop me from enjoying it.

IMO we it is not realistic to go back in time. A system where all the clubs have equal chances is utopic. So what we need is go in the other direction and very quick. IMO football needs a super league like the NBA. Something like 80 clubs (could be more,could be less, to be honest i haven't got a clue) who compete on the highest level. There is no relegation and all clubs have transparant acountancy, there is a salary cap and a draft. Besides those obvious rules, all the other rules should have one goal: fair competition and equal opportunities for each and every club. In an ultra capitalist environment this should not be an utopy.

If UEFA, FIFA or other powers that be, don't react we will have plenty of Anzhi's in Europe (and that is something that would worry me much more than Man City, after all Man City has a certain tradition, not the majestic tradition of United, but the club did not come out of nowhere).
 
Could Bendtner now lead the line for Arsenal? 20 goals in 52 games for Denmark is not too bad, and at 24 years and 1m95cm he could offer a big aerial threat.
 
Football in England was "ruined" by only having two horses in the race some 10 years ago, but if you look at it carefully you have to acknowledge Arsenal and Man Utd both have brilliant managers at the helm and it came as a long term project. Financially they both overpowered many teams abroad, but there's no way to even begin a comparison to what's happening today with City and Chelsea.

The things Wenger did was sign an unknown midfielder called Patrick Vieira for a bag of money and rescue a young talented player who was struggling at Juventus for £6m.
In a micro level, surely Arsenal attracted players from the likes of Ligue 1 based on financial power and some people felt bitter about it. But back then it still required scouting, an eye for talent and abilities to develop a player (helping them to adapt to a new country and league, and so on).

Sorry, but what Sheiks and Oligarchs do today is very different and it is beyond obscene. Just watch football on the TV and pick the best guys on each league... no, actually to make their lives easier they can afford to watch only Premier League (as they have more important business to attend). Just pick the best bunch of players at their backyard and they're good to go.

Football used to be a thing for people who lived and breathed it, you know. Well, not anymore.

Yes, RvP saying that has basically weakened Arsenal's position as a club that must sell. Not even Nasri did this. This coming from the captain of the club is simply disgusting.

Either way, he is just one man, one player who will be finished in a little while. Arsenal will remain strong. So sell him now (if you can auction your top scorer to the likes of Juve, Real Madrid and Barcelona) or just keep him rotting in the bench. Would be kind of humiliating for him to be stripped out of captaincy and sit on the bench. Let him play the Carling Cup, whatever.

As for where he might go, I'm not sure. His statement is designed to make his position untenable at Arsenal, so I think he could move to another Premier League side.
 
That is a perfect illustration of the mindset of a lot of people on this forum dominic, they only look at the EPL.
Rentboy is in his reaction only looking at the EPL. Football was partly ruïned because of the existence of the EPL (and it's fantastic publicity policy,as a product it is very attactive, you caneasily compare that aspect with the NBA). But most people here don't care about the difference between the EPL and all the other leagues. Now that powers are shifting within the EPL they see it as a problem. They are comparing Man City with Man Utd and Chelsea with Arsenal (for example). I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the EPL compared to almost every other league. The difference is unfair (and i'm a big fan of the EPL, so i'm positively biased).
 
Dominic said:
Unknown midfielder :LOL:. Vieira was playing for Milan.
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That was the general feeling in England when he made his debut. From the perspective of the English, he was completely unknown. I didn't witness in person this time in England, but I've read it on a few books about English football and Arsenal.

While not unknown in Europe, was he a star at Milan? Hardly a Marcel Desailly or Demetrio Albertini.

Maybe the example I gave may not be the best but you guys shouldn't invalidate my point. The point is: City and Chelsea go for the here and now, they only choose the best talent, possibly in their own backyard. They would never go for a young Patrick Vieira. That's my point. The short termism and need for immediate success bought by cash is the only path they go down.

Name any idiot as Director of Football in Man City and they can do the job just by watching TV. Who needs scouts?

Not to mention that I'm sure there was a great deal of illegal tapping up there by City - as there clearly was with Nasri, but they bought "Arsenal's silence" with £25m.

Everybody's talking as if RvP is going to City, because let's face it, if they're really offering a quarter million pounds a week, it's ridiculous. Impossible to refuse.

However, Arsenal has this instance of holding him to his contract now. And I think that's fine. There's too much power in the player's hands. Arsenal doesn't have to please him. It has to do what is best for the club.
I'd hear offers from Juventus and from Spain first.

If no agreement is reached, f*ck it. The club is not going bankrupt. Let Van Persie rot in the bench and play some Carling Cup.
If he stays, unfortunately this is what will happen, because he back stabbed Wenger and made his position untenable in the club.
 
He'll most likely join Juventus. It was reported weeks ago that he was in Torino with his family and talked with the club. Juventus are returning to be a big threat in the market.
 
Where to begin. RVP refuses to sign a new contract slagging off the boards ambitions and then our russian owner comes in with an open letter to the board slagging them off about the same thing.

fuck
 
What's going on now at Arsenal is the closest the club has been to a civil war. Unfortunately political struggle for control over the club is what's coming to the forefront now.
Most Arsenal blogs seem to make the connection between David Dean's alliance with Usmanov and his son Darren, the agent who has been turning the heads of our best players to leave.

Arseblog is saying that Usmanov must have already known about RvP's statement and had time to prepare accordingly. I gotta say this is quite possible. It's most likely that Red & White Holding's statement had been prepared in advance by their people.

Two low blows like these in quick succession. And R&W wrote on their statement they don't want to "create conflict and destabilize the club". Then what the hell is this open letter supposed to do?

I'm not a fan of Silent Stan the man without a plan, but this Usmanov fella reeks of bad news.
 
jonneymendoza said:
So what? he was shit at Milan. a no body. he was no world class player, same as henry, fagrebas, petit, overmars the list goes on
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Henry was fantastic with Monaco.
Overmars won a CL with Ajax and played a final with the same team (in fact if you look at the silverware he made a step back compared to Ajax).
All the players you mentioned were far much more accomplished than for example Dedrick Boyata (Man City), Lukaku (Chelsea), Oriol Romeu (Chelsea), and the Montenegro CB who plays for Man City. In fact do you know Man City's second GK? I don't...I know Arsenal's 3 GK's...


Fact is Jonney that the average English fan is hardly aware of the football outside England. All those players you named were far from nobodies.

If i'm not mistaken there is a rule that any foreigner coming to the EPL must have played a minimum amount of matches for his national team. It is impossible to transfer nobodies to the EPL.
 
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gerd said:
If i'm not mistaken there is a rule that any foreigner coming to the EPL must have played a minimum amount of matches for his national team. It is impossible to transfer nobodies to the EPL.
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Really! What's the point of this rule? I think it widens the gap between the teams more.
 
that rule doesnt exist, he's talking shit, i think average belgians dont know what the fuck they are talking about.
 
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