Why RVP to United is a Good Move for Arsenal

The Dark Knight

Well we all saw it coming. Maybe not in such a bitter drawn out manner but the fact remains that yet another Arsenal captain has once again left the armband behind in search of greener pastures. If one analyzes the move superficially, Arsenal have lost their top scorer and while replacing him with Podolski and Giroud, the club is sure to suffer without their former talismanic striker, however this move is actually pretty great for us and I'll tell you Gooners why and along the way explain why the misleading title is what it is.

Business:

This 24 million transfer actually represents a pretty good bit of business by Arsenal even if he was sold to a direct rival. The fact of the matter is that van Persie was never going to replicate last year's endeavors and probably not even come very close if his injury track record means anything. However we're not simply hoping that he breaks both his legs in his first match in a tablecloth (yes we are) but we've actually seen an almost identical scenario played out with Arsenal's favorite son, Henry 4 years ago.


The acrimony surrounding his departure was of course not nearly at the levels it is today regarding van Persie however how its relevance is clear. In 2006-2007 Henry scored 33 goals in 45 apps for Arsenal, stats very close to RIP's of last year. That summer Arsenal would turn down not one, but two bids for the prolific Frenchman, hopeful that he would be able to emulate his form of the previous year. However Henry's age started to show at 29 as he started to succumb to injuries more easily and didn't have the same explosiveness he had in his mid twenties only scoring 12 times in 27 appearances and shortly thereafter the club resigned themselves to selling him to Barcelona for a meager €24 million which is actually a significant sum less than van Persie's inevitable transfer to Yanited.


Now it's obvious that Wenger has taken the risk of putting faith in an aging star before and that risk proved to cost €26 million in what could have been reinvested in the squad. So how can Wenger be blamed for selling van Persie for more who is the same age and with an injury record that made Henry's look like a movie ticket stub next to the Bible? His prudence should be praised, and if we're to believe the BBC, it is by his prudence and not by RIP's c-ntish decision, the Doucheman was sold.

The fee that United are set to pay for the Fleeing Doucheman has actually already been used to reinvest in the squad as AW has used less to buy more in Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud who have 39 goals between them in their respective former leagues. Not only has the offensive output been all but replaced but it's been replaced in players younger and more versatile (at least in Podolski's case) than Robin van Plastic.

Philosophy and Psychology:

I know what some will inevitably say (and already have said).

"This is complete shite! Where's tehfuczking ambitionz?!?! Selling to a direct rival??!?! what teh fiecks Wenger?d!>?! We h8 you!"

But this is justified because United once sold us Silvestre.

Only kidding.


By selling van Persie, we're actually galvanizing the squad to surpass our previous accomplishments and lift some damned trophies. This is of course explained by the 'Ewing Theory' which was coined when star basketball player Patrick Ewing of the New York Knicks was injured, and the media wrote them off as non-factors in the playoff race.

The Knicks went on to make it to the NBA Finals, a feat never accomplished with Ewing in their midst.


The theory dictates that when a star athlete who continually receives media and fan attention despite his/her team failing to reach their potential, the said athlete leaves [in this case, via forced transfer] and his/her former team is written off.

However, the theory proposes that the team will excel in his/her absence because they will be playing harder, are more hungry and committed to prove him wrong. So in an unforeseen way, this could catalyze Arsenal and unite them to win and prove said prick wrong.

You could be asking, and should be asking why we didn't win the EPL and CL due to selling two stars last summer.


The difference is that this saga has been drawn out over the past year. Not the United transfer, but RVP's contract quagmire which has received incessant attention over the past year giving him an over inflated ego and emphasizing his importance to us, to the point where he was starting to be called 'Arsenal'. This hype made him enough of a megalomaniac to refuse to repay the ever-present faith poured into him by his manager and fans by committing his future to giving them trophies.

Now that that buzz will be carried over to Manchester, Arsenal will be left with the media writing them off claiming their title challenge had faded before it started. However, not only has this swollen ego been removed from the squad, so has a disgruntled teammate who would have surely dragged the team morale down, especially if he'd have kept the captain's armband, and don't get me started on if he'd been stripped of it and stayed.

These factors could motivate Arsenal to finally break the drought as it's a huge psychological boost in respect to the Ewing theory and the theory of 'you shouldn't have disgruntled f-ckers playing for you'

So by becoming the villain, RIP could actually be our knight. Our dark knight.


I can confidently say the list of captains filing out of the Emirates could reach a screeching halt as nearly certain to-be captain, Vermaelen has already signed a long-term deal with the club and pledged his future to it. The Verminator made it known from day one that he wanted to captain this team, not use it as a stepping stone to greater, more stained glory, but to bring it glory. Here's to lifting trophies under the reign of the Verminator. Welcome to a new era, Gooners.








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Hope you all enjoyed the read! Read an article on bleacherreport about this same topic and decided to expand upon it (greatly). Took a bit of time but it was necessary to show that this could be a beautiful thing. Hope I addressed all the points I set out to. Cheers!

OMG THE LAST PICTURE

*bleep* YOU VAN PERSIE, I LOVE YOU, YOU MADE ME HATE YOU, BLAGH ARG GRR.








Sorry bout that, I agree 100%, but I'd like to add that RvP was one of the mental giants in our squad. He never gives up hope in a match and we don't have many of those in the squad.

Also, congrats GL, you have found an even better writer for editorials than me 8-)

Ali"The Superman"8775 wrote:Also, congrats GL, you have found an even better writer for editorials than me 8-)

*Found a writer who can be bothered

This isa the last player that we have made great, and now we have sold him, so that means we are a selling club what the eff is good about that, and why is it that wenger and gadzidas don't have the balls to make a player play out thier contract?

That whole post just sounds bitter. I mean name calling...really...

I love the line where you say VP peaked last season and cant possibly repeat his goal scoring feat. But then again, didn't people say that at the end of 2010/11 season and that he couldn't possible stay fit all season? He not only stayed fit in 11/12, but had his beat season ever.

The fact is, Arsenal is a mentally weak team which has been proven over the last 7 years. How are the younger members going to feel when their best players leave season after season? They won't 'excel' and it wont 'galvanize' the squad. Its more likely to be the opposite. And in these times you expect the experienced players to lift the team. But where are our experienced players? We just sold the captain. When Ronaldo left United, they still had Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Giggs, Scholes etc, they had Rooney step up. Whos going to step up, whos providing leadership? Gervinho? Rosisky? Please. That isn't good enough.

Of course, when the season ends and we're third again, everyone will pat themselves on their back, and say we overachieved with what we have. That simply isn't good enough. We need to move forward. Not stay sideways. We buy Carzola, Giroud and Podolski, and then move backwards by selling VP.

silver wrote:That whole post just sounds bitter. I mean name calling...really...

I love the line where you say VP peaked last season and cant possibly repeat his goal scoring feat. But then again, didn't people say that at the end of 2010/11 season and that he couldn't possible stay fit all season? He not only stayed fit in 11/12, but had his beat season ever.

Obviously it's bitter, I hate him. I'm not trying to write an objective column for the BBC. I'm writing my thoughts on why this could be good for my mates on the forum. No filter.

And I'm really laughing if you think he'll play like he did last year or that injuries won't affect his time at United at all. Imagine if we'd kept him and he'd injured himself for the season and then left on a free? We have moved forward with those signings. BBC said RVP was willing to stay but Wenger wanted him gone. He wasn't worth the risk and he would have affected the team morale. Imagine if the captain of the team was leading the line everyday but had it brewing in the back of his mind that he had no faith in those he was leading. That would be pitiful.


But if you think he'll stay fit and re-claim the accolades he won when he led the line last year then by all means have a look at his injury record and tell me he's not long overdue

Groin Strain - 2012 February 29th
Ankle/Foot Injury - 2011 August 7th
Knee Injury - 2011 February 28th
Hamstring Injury - 2011 February 22nd
Flu - 2011 February 8th
Ankle/Foot Injury - 2010 August 28th
Ankle/Foot Injury - 2010 June 1st
Sprained Ankle - 2009 November 14th
Knee Injury - 2009 September 13th
Groin Strain - 2009 April 18th
Groin Strain - 2009 March 30th
Hamstring Injury - 2008 October 6th
Ankle/Foot Injury - 2008 August 31st
Thigh Muscle Strain - 2008 May 2nd
Thigh Muscle Strain - 2008 April 4th
Thigh Muscle Strain - 2008 January 11th
Thigh Muscle Strain - 2007 December 24th
Knee Injury - 2007 October 18th
Metatarsal Fracture - 2007 January 22nd
Ankle/Foot Injury - 2006 November 19th
Hip/Thigh Injury - 2006 September 14th
Ankle/Foot Injury - 2006 February 10th
Ankle/Foot Injury - 2005 December 22nd
Knee Injury - 2005 October 17th
Ankle/Foot Injury - 2005 February 5th
Sprained Ankle - 2004 November 26th
Sprained Ankle - 2004 August 27th

The fact is, Arsenal is a mentally weak team which has been proven over the last 7 years. How are the younger members going to feel when their best players leave season after season? They won't 'excel' and it wont 'galvanize' the squad. Its more likely to be the opposite. And in these times you expect the experienced players to lift the team. But where are our experienced players? We just sold the captain. When Ronaldo left United, they still had Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Giggs, Scholes etc, they had Rooney step up. Whos going to step up, whos providing leadership? Gervinho? Rosisky? Please. That isn't good enough.

lol that's an extremely cynical way of brushing over everything that's contributed to the trophy drought and reading it makes me kind of queasy that you're that ignorant or hurt by RVP's departure. I'm pretty sure we galvanized and excelled last year when we sold two stars when we weren't expecting to. Now we've sold one and it was our decision if BBC is anything to go by.

So you don't think the likes of Vermaelen, Sagna, Arteta or yes, even Rosicky could provide leadership? What about Podolski, Giroud, Theo and Ox, why can't they step up? Because they don't have ginormous Rooney-esque price tags? Why can't they? Because they don't play for United or haven't won anything? Have some Gooner pride ffs.

MJGunner wrote:

silver wrote:That whole post just sounds bitter. I mean name calling...really...

I love the line where you say VP peaked last season and cant possibly repeat his goal scoring feat. But then again, didn't people say that at the end of 2010/11 season and that he couldn't possible stay fit all season? He not only stayed fit in 11/12, but had his beat season ever.

The fact is, Arsenal is a mentally weak team which has been proven over the last 7 years. How are the younger members going to feel when their best players leave season after season? They won't 'excel' and it wont 'galvanize' the squad. Its more likely to be the opposite. And in these times you expect the experienced players to lift the team. But where are our experienced players? We just sold the captain. When Ronaldo left United, they still had Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Giggs, Scholes etc, they had Rooney step up. Whos going to step up, whos providing leadership? Gervinho? Rosisky? Please. That isn't good enough.

Of course, when the season ends and we're third again, everyone will pat themselves on their back, and say we overachieved with what we have. That simply isn't good enough. We need to move forward. Not stay sideways. We buy Carzola, Giroud and Podolski, and then move backwards by selling VP.

Obviously it's bitter, I hate him. I'm not trying to write an objective column for the BBC. I'm writing my thoughts on why this could be good for my mates on the forum. No filter.

And I'm really laughing if you think he'll play like he did last year or that injuries won't affect his time at United at all. Imagine if we'd kept him and he'd injured himself for the season and then left on a free? We have moved forward with those signings. BBC said RVP was willing to stay but Wenger wanted him gone. He wasn't worth the risk and he would have affected the team morale. Imagine if the captain of the team was leading the line everyday but had it brewing in the back of his mind that he had no faith in those he was leading. That would be pitiful.


But if you think he'll stay fit and re-claim the accolades he won when he led the line last year then by all means have a look at his injury record and tell me he's not long overdue

Groin Strain - 2012 February 29th
Ankle/Foot Injury - 2011 August 7th
Knee Injury - 2011 February 28th
Hamstring Injury - 2011 February 22nd
Flu - 2011 February 8th
Ankle/Foot Injury - 2010 August 28th
Ankle/Foot Injury - 2010 June 1st
Sprained Ankle - 2009 November 14th
Knee Injury - 2009 September 13th
Groin Strain - 2009 April 18th
Groin Strain - 2009 March 30th
Hamstring Injury - 2008 October 6th
Ankle/Foot Injury - 2008 August 31st
Thigh Muscle Strain - 2008 May 2nd
Thigh Muscle Strain - 2008 April 4th
Thigh Muscle Strain - 2008 January 11th
Thigh Muscle Strain - 2007 December 24th
Knee Injury - 2007 October 18th
Metatarsal Fracture - 2007 January 22nd
Ankle/Foot Injury - 2006 November 19th
Hip/Thigh Injury - 2006 September 14th
Ankle/Foot Injury - 2006 February 10th
Ankle/Foot Injury - 2005 December 22nd
Knee Injury - 2005 October 17th
Ankle/Foot Injury - 2005 February 5th
Sprained Ankle - 2004 November 26th
Sprained Ankle - 2004 August 27th

The writing was on the wall when we bought Giroud, no need to hate RVP.

Artilleristen wrote:
The writing was on the wall when we bought Giroud, no need to hate RVP.

lol, I really don't care if it was. The fact of the matter is he did us no favors by disgracing the club and claiming 'larger than the club' status by letting the world know he wouldn't re-sign. Imo his services last year are in no way compensation for the 7 years preceding it and his ambition claim is crap now and we know it. And to go to United? No. Just no.

MJGunner wrote:

Artilleristen wrote:
The writing was on the wall when we bought Giroud, no need to hate RVP.

lol, I really don't care if it was. The fact of the matter is he did us no favors by disgracing the club and claiming 'larger than the club' status by letting the world know he wouldn't re-sign. Imo his services last year are in no way compensation for the 7 years preceding it and his ambition claim is crap now and we know it. And to go to United? No. Just no.

MJGunner wrote:

Artilleristen wrote:
The writing was on the wall when we bought Giroud, no need to hate RVP.

lol, I really don't care if it was. The fact of the matter is he did us no favors by disgracing the club and claiming 'larger than the club' status by letting the world know he wouldn't re-sign. Imo his services last year are in no way compensation for the 7 years preceding it and his ambition claim is crap now and we know it. And to go to United? No. Just no.

When did he claim that, he said he didnt think we were showing ambition, and he wasnt going to sign a contract, he never once said he wanted to leave now, it was that he wasnt going to sign a contract from what he had seen early on in the window, which wasn't building a winning team, it was building a team for the perpetual future, which is the Arsenal way, get 4th place and pretend like it means something.

ambition and winning cups is overrated. even if Bendtner signs for Barca he is going 2 win a cup. why take the easy route.

He has sacrificed his only chance of achieving legend status. He will always b remembered as the guy that had 1 good season and arrogantly walked off to united.

The other aspect of this transfer that can b compared with Henry's was that the rest of the team started scoring goals. Towards the end of Henry's time, players like Theo would always rather pass to him than attempt to score themselves. There r times this season, where I saw similar situations. Players opted to pass to Van Persie than make the effort themselves. This will hopefully change this season for the likes of Walcott and Gervinho.

Giroud and Podolski have already shown that they're not shy to shoot so, yeah. This is way better for the team and we made a decent profit off it

Artilleristen wrote:
When did he claim that, he said he didnt think we were showing ambition, and he wasnt going to sign a contract, he never once said he wanted to leave now, it was that he wasnt going to sign a contract from what he had seen early on in the window, which wasn't building a winning team, it was building a team for the perpetual future, which is the Arsenal way, get 4th place and pretend like it means something.

He said he 'didn't agree with the direction the club was going in'. Universally acknowledged to be a shot at our ambition. And saying you won't extend means when your contract is done you'll be playing for another team. Universally acknowledged to be a desire to leave. So signing Giroud and Podolski before the window started wasn't ambitious enough? I'm surprised at the lengths you'll go to to defend this pompous pr-ck rather than look for the good and support your actual club. Or did you buy into the 'RVP is Arsenal' jokes?

He also told Ozyakup to leave. That says it all

since1996 wrote:ambition and winning cups is overrated. even if Bendtner signs for Barca he is going 2 win a cup. why take the easy route.

Even if he never won a trophy with Arsenal and spent his whole career here playing magnificent football, he would gain something just as, if not more valuable, respect. Loyalty is dying in this game, it would have been stunning to see an Arsenal captain break the trend and fight for the club rather than abandoning ship.

@Kwame2u

Agree with you completely, now that the focal point in our attack is gone, we're going to be forced to discover our identity as a team, meaning we'll see more goals from different places. Mostly from Giroud and Podolski imo.

Awesome article MJ..
Apart from losing our captain and problem of strengthening a rival we did a great job.. We bought 3 quality players for just 40million and recouped 24million by selling a player who was in the last year of his contract..
Smart business by Wenger and Gazidis.. Even better because we dont need to keep unhappy players and we managed to sell him for a fair price..

Wilson37 wrote:Awesome article MJ..
Apart from losing our captain and problem of strengthening a rival we did a great job.. We bought 3 quality players for just 40million and recouped 24million by selling a player who was in the last year of his contract..
Smart business by Wenger and Gazidis.. Even better because we dont need to keep unhappy players and we managed to sell him for a fair price..

Selling Club mentality coming from the fans.

Great job MJ.

Our team is so much stronger with or without RIP. We can challenge. People have to stop with the selling club crap bullshit. If a player does not want to play for Arsenal they can get the *bleep* out.

At Arsenal we can make almost any striker a top scorer the way we play. RVP will never be half as good as last year. I always said RIP is a gamble and I am glad I dont have to go game after game worrying about a injury prone player every time he goes down could be the one that knocks him out for a season.

If you look at our team almost every player wants to be here and our team will be a tough team to face.

Last thing I want to say is that I am happy we sold RIP before the season starts now we can relax and enjoy our team.

Cheer up Gunners.

Remember no one is bigger than Arsenal unless your are King Henry or Godly Bergkamp.

I am not bitter about this, nor do I hate Van Persie. He did what he thought was best for him. More power to him. But no player is bigger than Arsenal and Robin Van Persie, in his own mind, made himself bigger than the club. One thing he said in "The Statement" really jumped out at me:

“I personally have had a great season but my goal has been to win trophies with the team and to bring the club back to its glory days.”

Translation: "I'm awesome, but my teammates suck. They're so bad that I no longer believe we can win things together." He basically crapped on his teammates here. I. Me. Mine.

He also seemed to be under the impression that he should have a say in how the club is run:

“As announced earlier this year, I had a meeting with the Boss and Mr. Gazidis after the season. This was a meeting about the club’s future strategy and their policy...

….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."

Sorry, Mr. Van Persie, but developing club strategy is not your job. Your job is to play the game.

The fact is that Arsenal has done very well to get so much in return for a 29-year-old striker who has remained healthy for exactly one season and who would not have been a good bet to quite replicate his success of last season in any case. It would have been nice had he been moved somewhere besides United, but from a business standpoint you can't worry about such things. You make the best deal you can. The idea that Arsenal should have taken about 10 million pounds less to get him out of the country is nonsense. The difference in that fee can bring another pretty good player to Arsenal FC. Allowing themselves to be lowballed just for the sake of some misplaced sense of pride or to kowtow to fans would have been Arsenal cutting off its nose to spite its face. Don't worry about Robin Van Persie playing for United. Just build a team that can go out and beat them.

Arsenal was far too dependent on Van Persie for goals last year anyway. And that fact nearly cost the Gunners third place and a Champions League spot when RVP went into a funk down the stretch. Wenger has already brought in three terrific talents in Podolski, Giroud and Cazorla. There may be more to come before the transfer window shuts. This year's team should be more balanced and far less dependent on one player. Hopefully it can be a lot more healthy as well. I think the great bit of business Arsenal did in this transfer should only enhance what should be a great sense of optimism among thoughtful and reasonable fans.

LOVED the last picture, MJ. Nice topic, nice OP.

And yes, we all hope RIP will get his legs fecked sooner rather than later. Because it's inevitable.

Raptorgunner wrote:

That's the spirit. No fecker is bigger than the club!

Kwame2u wrote:He has sacrificed his only chance of achieving legend status. He will always b remembered as the guy that had 1 good season and arrogantly walked off to united.

The other aspect of this transfer that can b compared with Henry's was that the rest of the team started scoring goals. Towards the end of Henry's time, players like Theo would always rather pass to him than attempt to score themselves. There r times this season, where I saw similar situations. Players opted to pass to Van Persie than make the effort themselves. This will hopefully change this season for the likes of Walcott and Gervinho.

Giroud and Podolski have already shown that they're not shy to shoot so, yeah. This is way better for the team and we made a decent profit off it

This. You could see the second RVP stepped on the pitch at Cologne, the team was completely focused on him. It was like RVP always had to be in the midst of things, and subsequently we lost our rhythm.

For those who are criticizing this piece, I understand your frustrations. But we as fans, always have to look forward and hope for the best.
MJ tried to look at things from a bright perspective.

I think if someone wants to write an article about the negatives this transfer brings, we'll be happy to read it and share our opinions.

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

I think what we need is to see the bright side since we didn't have much of a choice. If you refuse you can, as Rev said, make a negative thread to sulk in.