EPL News 24/7How boring has this been?
Supposedly, within the next couple of days, the Robin Van Persie saga will be banished from the back pages and become just another horrifyingly dull memory with all the other transfer dramas of the past.
The world will be a better place; flowers will be more fragrant, food will taste better, and we’ll skip to Starbucks in the morning rather than trudge. Super happy.
Back to reality…
The papers are reporting now that Arsenal have ‘finally caved in to Manchester United’ over Van Persie, and that they’re now ‘resigned to losing him’. Yes, the Dutchman will shortly be heading up the M1, but this is far from a defeat for Arsenal.
The fee that both clubs are rumoured to have settled on is £22m – in what world is that bad business? A forward approaching his thirties with just one year left on his contract and a single impressive season to his name – Arsene Wenger has no case to answer over this, it’s a very good deal.
If – out of that fee – the club had to replace the Van Persie then maybe not, but they already have a fully-functioning forward line in place for the new season. Olivier Giroud and Lukas Podolski are as promising a partnership as you’ll find this season, and that’s ironically the one area of the team that won’t need servicing with the revenue from the Van Persie sale.
In fact, an additional midfielder aside, the first-team squad at the Emirates is ready for the new term – and given how Wenger has gone about his shopping through the Summer, Van Persie’s departure looks incidental. There are no glaring voids in the team, and there are no obvious frailties – an extra midfielder in the Yann M’Vila-mould would be nice, but so be it.
Regardless of the initial sting of Van Persie refusing to renew his contract, the resolution of this situation looks entirely successful from Arsenal’s perspective.
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vp is a very skillfull striker but the chances arsenal create can be put away any reasonable forrward and now 2 have turned up the problem is the defence they all want to score and forget their job
Boot VP out – he’s had one good season out of 8 – OK a very good season but who does he think he is, bigger than the Club – He’ll long be remembered as a Judas who took his 30 pieces of silver, I wonder if his wife and kids will miss London but he hasn’t thought of that. Good riddance – Get M’Villa asap and that guy from Celtic.
Hi guys ,
Yes van the man is a good striker . But isn’t our team like it was when Henry was here in the past “one dimension” always playing to him , like now always to van persie.
Atleast now like the comment before we can change formation to aid the new signings , more up front unlike just the lone man.
I reckon if van does leave we will be ok look at koln we bashed them in the first half chance after chance and if it wasn’t for their goalkeeper the score would have been much higher.
Chin up people we might have sahin and maybe a swap deal to rid bendtner pleasssse.
RVP has immense value, but with him as the loan front man the team are forced to play a very specific way. Stop RVP and you stopped Arsenal. Take out RVP and you change the way we play. You saw that against Koln. With a front 4 of Podolski, Giroud, Theo and Cazorla teams wont know where the threat is coming from until it’s too late.
“Olivier Giroud and Lukas Podolski are as promising a partnership as you’ll find this season.”
Even though they have never played in the Premier League???
I think you write off RVP’s worth a little easily
I disagree with Rupe, Olivier Giroud is an immensely capable striker, and people forget Podolski can also take on that role, on top of that if you want a third striker I would be bold enough to suggest Walcott, he constantly seems to want to play in that role, and as a third option he would be able to provide. On the wings we have several players that can fil roles; Gervinho, Walcott, Podolski, Ox, Arshavin (who i believe would much prefer to play in the centre), and as we’ve seen in pre-season Santos too, as well as new signings like Gnarby. Cazorla too, can play on the wings (although like the diminutive Russian, he would be better in the centre). Arteta, Ox, Arshavin, Cazorla, Song, as well as injured players in the likes of Rosicky,Wilshire & Frimpong are all incredibly capable midfielders. In all honesty, the only places I feel we need to beef up are the full back positions, I don’t think Jenkinson can cover for Sagna, and if he were able to keep fit I would not replace him with any other right-back. The left back position needs improvement in my opinion, Gibbs has taken leaps and bounds but I’m not sure if he’s the best option, and Santos might be a little to attacking minded (which seems to be why he so ably played that left wing in the pre-season)
“Olivier Giroud and Lukas Podolski are as promising a partnership as you’ll find this season, and that’s ironically the one area of the team that won’t need servicing with the revenue from the Van Persie sale.”
That’s absurd.
If RVP leaves we’ll need another striker as back-up. It would be the area of the team which MOST
needed servicing with the revenue. We’re fine in midfield. Another defender would be good too but
we do at least have good depth there and some promising youngsters coming through. With Benik
having gone out on loan for the season we don’t really even have that option as cover up front.