well ya its still premature, but its just as premature as when all of you guys condemned him as a greedy traitor before anything actually happened.

and why on earth would rvp have to apologize? what has he done wrong? criticize arsenals lack of ambition in the transfer marker? it was overdue.

No need for RVP to apologise. He just said he wanted to leave and stated the reasons why.

urbaNRoots wrote:Robin should apologize IF he stays not fans

Hmmm...

No one's going to apologize to anyone. Let's get real.

I can't wait until we can talk about performances on the field again, rather than performances in the press room.

#sillyseason

What reputation?

The one season wonder, who has spent more time injured than Kieron Dyer?

What a reputation to ruin

Arsenal don't need him anyway, if they sign Cazorla and Sahin. I could score goals upfront with the service Podolski, Walcott, Cazorla and Sahin will provide.

Giroud would score atleast 20 league goals with them behind him.

lol come on mole, arsenal fans were treating van persie like a deity for all those years he's been injured, "world class" and "best in the world if it wasn't for the injuries" has been thrown around since the old-old forum

now he decides he's had enough for one reason or another and suddenly arsenal have turned into the goddamn red cross because apparently they've been handing a salary to a constantly injured player, "putting up with him" as it were, while all the fans were doing while he was injured is desperately hoping for him to come back because he is, and was, by far the best player on their team

vanDEEZ wrote:

AnJl wrote:

vanDEEZ wrote:

Vibe wrote:If he stays Tarnished his status for nothing...

more like fans were quick to throw him under the bus before anything actually happened.

Dont be so thick

are you disputing that arsenal fans have not thrown him under the bus? because i can bring up threads if you like.

or are you disputing the fact that he hasnt physically done anything. because as of now hes still an arsenal player.

or is the facepalm emoticon your entire argument?

Honestly the stupid and blinkered comments you have put over the last couple of pages really only deserves a facepalm.

We didnt throw him under the bus at the get go. When Nasri refused to sign a contract towards the end of the season, we knew something was up.

But even when rumors were running amok about RVP and his delay in signing a contract

"wait till the end of the season"

"wait till the Euro's are over"

We still patiently waited for him to sign a contract, despite the rumors floating around. Then he decides he is larger than life and puts out that pathetic article on his site and he wont sign an extension with Arsenal 'for their lack of ambition.'

Remember this, that apparent 'lack of ambition' is the only reason he is originally still at Arsenal especially with his constant injuries at hindered him from playing consistently for Arsenal. It was because of Wenger's faith and persistence in keeping Van Persie and refusal to sign another striker cause it may hinder Van Persie from fully showing his skills should he get over his injuries is the ONLY bloody reason he is the player today.

EVEN THEN, Arsenal fans are still divided on their opinions regarding RVP (if you want to draw up threads, first look at the Arsenal section to see exactly what Arsenal fans think about RVP and whether we all are 'throwing him under the bus'

So I suggest the next time you make comments on Arsenal fans and RVP, look at both sides of the road before crossing.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:What reputation?

The one season wonder, who has spent more time injured than Kieron Dyer?

What a reputation to ruin

Arsenal don't need him anyway, if they sign Cazorla and Sahin. I could score goals upfront with the service Podolski, Walcott, Cazorla and Sahin will provide.

Giroud would score atleast 20 league goals with them behind him.

Walcott & Podolski are rubbish players. Arsenal will be in the same boat. And with regards to Nasri at his peak & Fab they are pretty much the same. Only thing is they have a far inferior quality ST in Giroud who had 1 good season in "ligue1".

If they could not win the league then when Wilshire was thought to be as good as Sahin then they have 0 hope now.

So now Podolski is rubbish?

Get the f*ck out with that shit

Kingofeverythingclassy wrote:

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:What reputation?

The one season wonder, who has spent more time injured than Kieron Dyer?

What a reputation to ruin

Arsenal don't need him anyway, if they sign Cazorla and Sahin. I could score goals upfront with the service Podolski, Walcott, Cazorla and Sahin will provide.

Giroud would score atleast 20 league goals with them behind him.

Walcott & Podolski are rubbish players. Arsenal will be in the same boat. And with regards to Nasri at his peak & Fab they are pretty much the same. Only thing is they have a far inferior quality ST in Giroud who had 1 good season in "ligue1".

If they could not win the league then when Wilshire was thought to be as good as Sahin then they have 0 hope now.

a rubbish player doesn't score 8 goal and 11 assists

or score 18 goals for a relegated Bundesliga team and has 44 goals under him for NT

Like Lex posted "Arsenal sign Lionel Messi"

"Messi isnt good anymore".....

Nah, come off that, all 3 of you.

Podolski scored those goals for Koln, KOLN. Excuse others for not thinking that things will go quite so easy for him at Arsenal. The last Big club he was at he scored 15,15, in 3 years.

This ain't about 'just because Arsenal signed him there's doubts', it's plain and simple, this is his second chance at a Big club to prove himself as someone who can excel at the highest level of club football because he sucked ass the first time round.

I mean seriously, Darren fcking Bent has similar numbers for teams like Aston Villa, Charlton and Sunderland. The minute the intensity got upped for him at Spurs, he caved.

There will always be question marks about a player going to a top club if he flopped at the only other one he was at.

I'm not going to suck Podolski's dick and pretend he's the 2nd coming of Ronaldo, but to claim the 6th highest top scorer for the German national team is "rubbish" and "not an ambitious signing" is, quite frankly, spastic

But, here's the thing:
Had Arsenal signed Darren Bent who has similar stats at club level would he be regarded as highly as Podolski is now? Or would there be doubts because of his past frailties at Spurs?

izzy wrote:Nah, come off that, all 3 of you.

Podolski scored those goals for Koln, KOLN. Excuse others for not thinking that things will go quite so easy for him at Arsenal. The last Big club he was at he scored 15,15, in 3 years.

This ain't about 'just because Arsenal signed him there's doubts', it's plain and simple, this is his second chance at a Big club to prove himself as someone who can excel at the highest level of club football because he sucked ass the first time round.

I mean seriously, Darren fcking Bent has similar numbers for teams like Aston Villa, Charlton and Sunderland. The minute the intensity got upped for him at Spurs, he caved.

There will always be question marks about a player going to a top club if he flopped at the only other one he was at.

SERIOUSLY

Stop with this 'sucked at his time in Bayern', 'Failed miserably at Bayern'

Did you even WATCH what happened?

FFS, look at his stats, this guy was coming off the freaking bench most of the time

He wasnt shown faith in his talents and FFS! the guy is older now.

He isnt the greatest in the world and I dont expect him to score 50 goals and single handedly destroy teams, but you are acting like he doesnt even know how to kick the bloody ball

izzy wrote:But, here's the thing:
Had Arsenal signed Darren Bent who has similar stats at club level would he be regarded as highly as Podolski is now? Or would there be doubts because of his past frailties at Spurs?

But it's not just at the club level. Podolski has nine times as many caps and ten times as many goals in international play than Bent does. The questions of what he can do for a big club are warranted but his international record and form as of the last two years speak for themselves proving that he's by no means 'rubbish'. Any suggestions otherwise are complete

AnJl wrote:SERIOUSLY

Stop with this 'sucked at his time in Bayern', 'Failed miserably at Bayern'

Did you even WATCH what happened?

FFS, look at his stats, this guy was coming off the freaking bench most of the time

He wasnt shown faith in his talents and FFS! the guy is older now.

He isnt the greatest in the world and I dont expect him to score 50 goals and single handedly destroy teams, but you are acting like he doesnt even know how to kick the bloody ball

Oh I watched him at Bayern. He sucked. He came off the bench because at the time Bayern had begun to buy strikers like Klose and Toni. Instead, of being able to get the nod, and lead the line, the other two were the prefered option and the games he did start, he didn't exactly light it up.

At Bayern, he couldn't break in and get a starting spot. Why? Because Bayern felt Toni and Klose were better.

So he went back to his hometown club and we all know the story.

Similar story to that of the Aston Villa No.10, expect Villa ain't his hometown.

MJGunner wrote:But it's not just at the club level. Podolski has nine times as many caps and ten times as many goals in international play than Bent does. The questions of what he can do for a big club are warranted but his international record and form as of the last two years speak for themselves proving that he's by no means 'rubbish'. Any suggestions otherwise are complete

You bought him to play for Arsenal, not Germany. And yes you can question whether he'll be the same for Arsenal as he was for Koln because this is club football.
Seriously, 2 years at Sunderland Bent scored 32 in 58.

Now no-one is questioning whether he is rubbish (ignore that Bayern fan, guy is full of crap), but sue me if i'm not 100% convinced that he'll deliver goods considering the amount of players who rack them in at smaller clubs but freeze when their thrust into the spotlight is so common in football these days.

izzy wrote:

At Bayern, he couldn't break in and get a starting spot. Why? Because Bayern felt Toni and Klose were better together.

There's a huge difference between a player being better than another and complementing his second striker and their style of play. In this instance, Toni is a massive man at 6'5 who is an aerial beast similar to Klose who, although shorter, made up for it with his aggressive aerobic displays. These two together would terrorize defenses, towering and jumping over them provided they received steady supplies of crosses to convert. Podolski was an entirely different player as is obvious by his preference to drill in shots rather than go up for headers. His being injured for two months and Toni getting that time to prove himself also didn't help his case at Bayern.

izzy wrote:

You bought him to play for Arsenal, not Germany. And yes you can question whether he'll be the same for Arsenal as he was for Koln because this is club football.
Seriously, 2 years at Sunderland Bent scored 32 in 58.

Now no-one is questioning whether he is rubbish (ignore that Bayern fan, guy is full of crap), but sue me if i'm not 100% convinced that he'll deliver goods considering the amount of players who rack them in at smaller clubs but freeze when their thrust into the spotlight

True but you also don't ignore the stats and experience he accrued from his years playing for a top 3 national team. I understand the doubts and the only way to convince anyone is with his play this year. I believe he's a different player from the young injury prone starlet being stifled on the Bayern bench and that he'll prove it at Arsenal. I'm not talking about a blowout season, not a 20+ goals season. Maybe 10-15 goals and 8-10 assists if he's not playing centrally, those being very good numbers for a debut PL season especially with people not expecting much from him.

MJGunner wrote:True but you also don't ignore the stats and experience he accrued from his years playing for a top 3 national team. I understand the doubts and the only way to convince anyone is with his play this year. I believe he's a different player from the young injury prone starlet being stifled on the Bayern bench and that he'll prove it at Arsenal. I'm not talking about a blowout season, not a 20+ goals season. Maybe 10-15 goals and 8-10 assists if he's not playing centrally, those being very good numbers for a debut PL season especially with people not expecting much from him.

Fair enough, but the signing of Podolski doesn't make me go, 'Oh sh1t, watch out for Arsenal now'. My expectations for him this season are low as I don't expect him to set the BPL on fire, he might, but I don't expect it.

But back to the the whole point of this discussion, maybe that's one of the reasons RVP isn't convinced with Arsenal's ambition as they he see's it as Arsenal buying decent but not great players. And until the apparent signings of Cazorla and Sahin are official, he has every right to think that.

izzy wrote:

MJGunner wrote:True but you also don't ignore the stats and experience he accrued from his years playing for a top 3 national team. I understand the doubts and the only way to convince anyone is with his play this year. I believe he's a different player from the young injury prone starlet being stifled on the Bayern bench and that he'll prove it at Arsenal. I'm not talking about a blowout season, not a 20+ goals season. Maybe 10-15 goals and 8-10 assists if he's not playing centrally, those being very good numbers for a debut PL season especially with people not expecting much from him.

Fair enough, but the signing of Podolski doesn't make me go, 'Oh sh1t, watch out for Arsenal now'. My expectations for him this season are low as I don't expect him to set the BPL on fire, he might, but I don't expect it.

But back to the the whole point of this discussion, maybe that's one of the reasons RVP isn't convinced with Arsenal's ambition as they he see's it as Arsenal buying decent but not great players. And until the apparent signings of Cazorla and Sahin are official, he has every right to think that.

I'm biased to him since I've supported Germany all my life and naturally love Podolski but I think I'm being pretty fair with my expectations. I'm not saying he'll turn us into title challengers but he definitely gives us depth and quality. If you consider Podolski a decent signing then Cazorla is most certainly a great one, Sahin as well. And if we sign Cazorla and/or Sahin I reeaally see no validity in an RVP departure justified by a 'lack of ambition'.

Henry, Vieira and Bergkamp were considered this kind of rubbish players when they signed with Arsenal. How bad they all turned to be.

MJGunner wrote:I'm biased to him since I've supported Germany all my life and naturally love Podolski but I think I'm being pretty fair with my expectations. I'm not saying he'll turn us into title challengers but he definitely gives us depth and quality. If you consider Podolski a decent signing then Cazorla is most certainly a great one, Sahin as well. And if we sign Cazorla and/or Sahin I reeaally see no validity in an RVP departure justified by a 'lack of ambition'.

But were Arsenal interested at all in signing these players before or after RVP made his comments? If it's after, then I have no idea why it needs to take a star player to come out and question Arsenal's ambition for Wenger to begin to make moves in the transfer market.
If these moves don't happen.... then RVP will be justified, but at least Arsenal pursed them rather than letting a rival steal them instead.

urbaNRoots wrote:Henry, Vieira and Bergkamp were considered this kind of rubbish players when they signed with Arsenal. How bad they all turned to be.

That's borderline stupid.

Henry joined at 21
Vieira joined at 20
Bergkamp joined at 26 and had already established himself as a top talent at Ajax.
Podolski is 27 and has nothing on Bergkamp at their respective ages.

izzy wrote:

urbaNRoots wrote:Henry, Vieira and Bergkamp were considered this kind of rubbish players when they signed with Arsenal. How bad they all turned to be.

That's borderline stupid.

Henry joined at 21
Vieira joined at 20
Bergkamp joined at 26 and had already established himself as a top talent at Ajax.
Podolski is 27 and has nothing on Bergkamp at their respective ages.

At Ajax

Then he spent 2 years at Inter and flopped hard to the tune of 11 goals in 52 apps when compared to his 185 apps and 103 goals at Ajax.

Henry was performing pretty poorly at Juventus when AW picked him up.

Vieira was a nobody, only featuring twice for Milan.

RVP himself had similar statistics for Feyenoord when he was a few years younger than Podolski at Bayern. He had 61 apps and 15 goals. Podolski had 71 apps and 15 goals. RVP had an attitude problem to boot but was given faith he didn't deserve.

All these assessments are subjective to their time and other factors but the point is that there were question marks for all these signings and they proved top talents, legends even. I'd say Podolski's case seems a lot less dire as he's been great albeit for a relegated team. I'm so naive that I would rank Podolski up with those struggling soon to be legends but he looks a lot better on paper than any of them did when they were bought.


One last thing, what are we arguing? That Arsenal needed a wake-up call to refreshen their ambition in the transfer marker, or that RVP's statement wasn't worth it?

izzy wrote:

urbaNRoots wrote:Henry, Vieira and Bergkamp were considered this kind of rubbish players when they signed with Arsenal. How bad they all turned to be.

That's borderline stupid.

Henry joined at 21
Vieira joined at 20
Bergkamp joined at 26 and had already established himself as a top talent at Ajax.
Podolski is 27 and has nothing on Bergkamp at their respective ages.

And Podolski hasn't estabilished himself as a Top talent in Köln and Germany? Ok. All these players flopped at their previously bigger clubs, same as Podolski did. You're trying too hard.

MJGunner wrote:At Ajax

Then he spent 2 years at Inter and flopped hard to the tune of 11 goals in 52 apps when compared to his 185 apps and 103 goals at Ajax.

Henry was performing pretty poorly at Juventus when AW picked him up.

Vieira was a nobody, only featuring twice for Milan.

RVP himself had similar statistics for Feyenoord when he was a few years younger than Podolski at Bayern. He had 61 apps and 15 goals. Podolski had 71 apps and 15 goals. RVP had an attitude problem to boot but was given faith he didn't deserve.

All these assessments are subjective to their time and other factors but the point is that there were question marks for all these signings and they proved top talents, legends even. I'd say Podolski's case seems a lot less dire as he's been great albeit for a relegated team. I'm so naive that I would rank Podolski up with those struggling soon to be legends but he looks a lot better on paper than any of them did when they were bought.


One last thing, what are we arguing? That Arsenal needed a wake-up call to refreshen their ambition in the transfer marker, or that RVP's statement wasn't worth it?

Difference is Bergkamp had proven he had the quality and was a top talent by doing it at Ajax not Koln. Yes, he did flop at Inter but he still had his time at Ajax to fall back on, something Podolski doesn't have.

Henry was playing brilliantly at Monaco before his transfer to Juve in January. He was only there for 6 months. 6 months and was 20 years of age at the time. He had the talent and the potential.

Vieria was 19 when he was at Milan. 19. What was he expected to do?

I believe a 20 year old and 19 year old have a lot less to prove than a 27 year old who did spend 3 years at a top club. Both players quickly proved their class for Arsenal during their debut seasons.

Bergkamp's talent was never in question when he joined Arsenal from Inter, the only question mark on him was could he develop to the English brand of football and would Wright and Anelka be good enough strike partners.

There is a huge difference between the Arsenal those three players joined and the Arsenal Podolski has just joined. It was clear that Wenger was signing these players young players with a mixture of experience that would allow Arsenal to win the PL and compete strongly in the CL for many years to come, which proved to come true. The goal for Arsenal every season was to win the league and compete strongly for the CL.

The Arsenal Podolski has joined has question marks all over it. The fans are split on whether the goal is to actually win the league or secure a top 4 postion, to actually compete strongly to win the CL or make the quarters etc.

Comparing Podolski to Henry age 20, Vieria age 19 and Bergkamp who actually proved his class at a top club like Ajax is ridiculous.