My Opinion On Arsene, Van Persie and Song

I’ve been away for a few weeks, busy getting married and enjoying my honeymoon, so while I am in mood which could be described as Jamie Redknapp would put it, “literally over the moon”, I’ve also had ample time to digest and take in the events over the last few weeks, from a distance anyway.

Firstly our captain, Robin van Persie.

Looking at supporter opinion, it’s clear the vast majority of people hate Robin, call him a traitor (among other things) and someone that had one good season and has thrown Arsene’s loyalty to him in his face.

Personally speaking, Robin van Persie was a player I loved, I’m not ashamed to admit it. He was dedicated to the cause, gave 110% every time he wore the Arsenal shirt and I loved him because unlike others at the Colney Creche, he cared. He showed it every time he scored. I’ve said one of our biggest problems was not having players that were winners, that cared enough. We’ve only had a handful of winners over the last few years; Cesc, Vermaelen, Nasri and Van Persie. Every time they scored a goal, they went mental. You can tell how a player is when they reacted to scoring an important goal and those players f*cking loved it. But season after season, we ended up trophy-less.

The problem is Arsene heavily relies on loyalty but that’s not enough. Players want to win things and while people will argue van Persie only moved for the money, who else in their right mind would turn down 2 or 3 times their annual wage? And surely Arsenal would be able to pay the top wages if they didn’t reward mediocre players (like Bendtner, Vela, Diaby and the other dead wood) with ridiculous contracts. These players have won f*ck all but get paid stupid money. The gap in wages that top players like Cesc and van Persie were on compared to other squad members like Bendtner was too small.

I don’t blame RVP one bit for moving. Like it or not, Manchester United prove they can compete for the title year after year, and have done for the last 20-odd years. Who wouldn’t want to move there? Clichy and Nasri moved last season and what happened? They won the Premier League. Cesc left and won trophies as well. We lose our best talent season after season, because for some ridiculous reason we let our top players run down their contracts.

Arsene Wenger is not stupid. He obviously wants to sell these players and keep earning a profit every summer. He spouts things like “We want to keep our best players” and then does the exact opposite. He points to players “wanting to leave” but never addresses why this is the case. It’s because we never compete and 4th place will do for us. Top professionals and winners don’t want this. Cesc even took a pay cut to leave Arsenal so he didn’t leave for the money. The fans are fed up with the lack of trophies so why wouldn’t the players?

Van Persie engineered a move because he’d had enough. But does anyone ask why players want to leave? I tell you one thing, if Arsenal were winning trophies and being competitive then there wouldn’t be a question about whether they wanted to leave or not. And now Alex Song is doing the same.

Loyalty is a two way street. Van Persie has been at Arsenal for 8 seasons and only won the FA Cup. He’s 29 and doesn’t see Arsenal winning anything anytime soon. So why shouldn’t he move? If he had assurances we’d compete then he would have stayed, but selling Song isn’t exactly doing that. He’s seen Clichy, Cesc and Nasri all have success elsewhere and wants some of the glory.

Song leaving is also very disappointing. Along with Arteta and van Persie he was one of our best performers last season. You can dismiss his contribution just because he’s forced a move away – he was an important player for us. He made mistakes but created so many chances for vital goals last year and was improving all the time.

We are now selling players at their peak and the anger is always aimed at the players and not the club, which is something I find strange. Why is no-one addressing the reason why they want to leave? You can’t just label all of them mercenaries and gold diggers can you?

We’ve lost van Persie and Song, and brought in Cazorla, Podolski and Giroud. They are decent acquisitions but we can’t keep bringing in new talent then losing others. It’s a vicious circle and we need to build year on year, instead of being at the same level every season. I have no doubt we will do well in patches this season and a Top 4 finish is probably realistic.

But Arsenal’s fans and players want that bit more.

 

19 thoughts on “My Opinion On Arsene, Van Persie and Song

  1. Good Article
    I believe that the player have been told that the main priority it to get 4th place ,and no emphasis is no winning the league or CUP, but to have a good run in the cups.

    If we were wining things Clichy would not have left and probably not Nasri.
    RVP would Definitely still be here.

     
  2. You say players left to win things but Clichey Song RVP Cesc Adebayor nasri all played in the same team yet weren’t good enough or had the mentality to win something. Good riddance to those players maybe we can get winners in now and they can fulfil the promise they have rather than whinge that they weren’t good enough and need more money

     
  3. Brave,incisive but truthful comments. To win trophies you need a TEAM,not just a few brilliant individuals,as some thoughtless might opine. And RvP suggested the team was in need of strengthening in the right positions,and got rebuffed many a time. And strange that MOTM,Cazorla made an observation on the pitch after the match that the squad need proper replacements FAST.

     
  4. THE MAIN REASON ALL OF THESE PLAYERS LEFT APART FROM CSEC is for money their wages were doubled or tripled in some cases.

    all this crap about trophies is rubbish, they were the reason we didnt win any trophies they just didnt turn up when it mattered.
    funny they blame the club that built them and gave them a platform to win yet they could not deliver.

    its about MONEY now song the ungrateful idiot would not have been given a chance to develop at a CL club neither would van crock man u would have dumped him years ago with his injury record. yet we stuck by them cos Arsene believed in them

    clichy was rubbish and cost us the title at Birmingham with his ineptitude and clueless attitude to defending.

    all of the players that left were all developed whilst making horrendous mistakes for years costing us chances to win trophies yet we stuck by them i mean look at last years carling cup final if they were so good why didnt they beat a relegation bound side. we carried them and now they are too big for us BOLLOX.

    SO GLAD WENEGR HAS GOT RID OF SONG he thought he was messi what a wanker.

    COME ON U GOONERS!!!

     
  5. “I don’t blame RVP one bit for moving. Like it or not, Manchester United prove they can compete for the title year after year, and have done for the last 20-odd years.”
    You don’t blame him for going to link up with the team and player who CHEATED the Invincibles out of 50 in a row? The CAPTAIN of our team!? Well at least he might actually get a penalty thrown his way this year.
    I’m sorry but I find that stunning. As an Arsenal fan, I just can’t understand how you could find him wanting to go to Utd understandable. I know winning is important, but this guy professed to be an Arsenal fan. If I were in his shoes and had gotten frustrated with life at Arsenal, there’d still be no chance in hell of me going to Utd. It’s not asking much to expect at least that tiniest bit of loyalty, is it!? City would have been miles more acceptable ffs. If he’d gone there it would have been disappointing, but acceptable.

    “Loyalty is a two way street. Van Persie has been at Arsenal for 8 seasons and only won the FA Cup.”
    He’s been at arsenal for 8 seasons and only been fit for one full season – did he want someone else to do the work for him? Most managers would have got rid, but Wenger stuck by him – does he think Fergie would have kept him that long!? Arsenal certainly have not let RVP down on that front.
    Also, do you really think he’d be this good were it not for Wenger? He admits himself he didn’t believe he could be a goalscoring CF, but Wenger always did, he always played him high up the pitch except the year after Ade scored 30 goals. Were it not for Wenger RVP would likely be a decent winger or a very good 2nd striker, not the world class goalscorer he’s considered today.

    He said we lacked ambition, and we proved him wrong by signing 2 top strikers and Cazorla. He then proceeded to *fullfill his own prophecy* by forcing through a move to Utd – herein lies the problem, they don’t stay to finish the job! It’s not about football, as I said, the summer transfers proved him wrong on that front, the most striking thing is that we offered him 100k pw (pretty good display of loyalty imho), but Utd offered him more than double.
    And I’m sure there was no tapping up behind the scenes.

     
  6. thenry – you’re right man. Think about it in terms of a job; they want to make as much money as possible because for all they know financial restrictions could come in place any time, so they want to get the biggest contract as soon as possible. There’s no doubt in my mind that their agents are constantly drilling that into them. It makes sense.
    This is why my opinion of RVP is that he is simply a weak-willed and rather pathetic individual. Quite the opposite of how I had seen him. It was all a media ruse. He makes statements like Utd breathes football now – he’ll say anything to get the fans on his side.

     
  7. gogol – those were different times. In reality you can’t expect every player to want to spend his entire career at one club. People do like fresh challenges and Vieira wanted to come back at one point, but we wouldn’t take him. Money may have played a part for Vieira as well because I think Italy was still paying big money back then (?)

     
  8. I don’t think that the reasons for players leaving can be easily distilled into a single factor…and each player likely has had different motivations. Of course the reason for departure “I want to win more trophies” is a useful crutch. What would be interesting to learn is why each of them think that they cannot win it with the people that they train with. Do they respect their team mate so little? Is this more reflective of an attitude across the club? Do they sense (rightly or wrongly) that Wenger has lost his drive to win? More than skill set I feel that the club needs an emotional leader who will not let them lose. For all his wonderful skills, I am still not sure if VP was that. I think he was better in this regard than Cesc though. Keeping fingers crossed that maybe TV5, Santi, and Arteta bring back the “never say die” spirit of the old gunners.

     
  9. Yes money$$$$$ plays a big part of it. Thats for both the club and the players. The main reason Arsenal was patient with both VP and Song situations over the last 6 years is that they could not spend the money needed to replace them. Its was NOT because they liked the players. Proof is that this year Arsenal finally has cash to spend on players so they suddenly become intolerant of Song’s tardiness to team meetings… Please!! The MANUs of this world are always intolerant because they have the big wallets.
    There is absolutely nothing wrong with VP and Song going except maybe that we got screwed by Barca on the price 15m for Song. We in turn screwed ManU so maybe all is well.
    Both players go with our blessings .. Good luck guys!!!!

     
  10. I think that RvP hoped to get a bigger club with his statement, and I mean abroad (Barcelona anyone?), but it misfired completely. In the end only Man U wanted him.
    And I remember him sitting in his room, with all Arsenal things. And now: “the little boy inside me told me to go to Man U”…
    I am Dutch, and always was a big fan of him, thought he would be the second Bergkamp, That was the one with class.
    I hope he performs like he did in the Dutch national team,where he was rubbish!

     
  11. Arsenal players always wanted to leave even when we were successful. The list is endless. Your argument does not stack up to me. Even when we had hleb and flamini we were on he cusp of getting over the line and they left never mind all he others before when we were actually winning. Sorry money is the motivator (I will exempt cesc only as he wanted to go home). If all of those players. Clichy, nasri, toure, rvp, flamini, hleb, ade, song etc had stayed we would have won titles. No sorry greed is the only factor.

     
  12. In reply to everyone above.
    Yes, trophies are important for players, sometimes more than money. Just as fans are fed with Wenger, these players also know that the ultimate aim of AFC is to get qualified for the ECL year in year out. Nobody can deny that Wenger always leave gaps in the team’s quality and needs one or two players to really challenge for a trophy. That’s the reason Cesc, Nasri and others have never won anything. How many of you have forgotten that during those years Wenger did not address the defensive issue. Don’t you all remember we also needed a keeper and we had to wait for Chesny.
    Do you not remember we played Barca without a proper central defender and we could have beaten them if we had a proper striker?
    I guess we just chose to remember what we want and put the blame on players who have lost faith in a vascillating manager for whom money is more important.
    So , they have to chose between Wenger and his lack of ambition and on the other side twice the money plus a real possibility to win silverware. Sadly their loyalty to Arsenal just does not weigh enough. Are they really to blame ?

     
  13. RVP is lying.

    I know what the little voice said. The little voice said ‘RVP, you are 29, you are injury prone, pressure to win things in the team is at an almighty high, if you get another injury you are out, this is your last chance to earn at the same level as your mates; Adebayor, Nasri, Toure, Clichy, Flamini, etc.’

    And the little voice belonged to Mr. Kroos.

     
  14. I tink like a normal case i̶̲̥̅̊n̶̲̥̅ life,this problem is hydra headed,arsene has a hand i̶̲̥̅̊n̶̲̥̅ this,d̶̲̥̅̊ε̲̣̣̣̥γ̲̣̣̥ players r not left out,neither is d̶̲̥̅̊ε̲̣̣̣̥γ̲̣̣̥ board,but d̶̲̥̅̊ε̲̣̣̣̥γ̲̣̣̥ only problem i̶̲̥̅̊n̶̲̥̅ all of this is dt its d̶̲̥̅̊ε̲̣̣̣̥γ̲̣̣̥ fans dt suffer afterall!

     
  15. Great article. Fans spend too much time blaming players for what has been so glaringly obvious for years,money not trophies is the priority. AFC is all about the profit.Wenger spent many a year with rants like’ spending $$ doesn’t win trophies’ ‘winning trophies is not everything’ blah blah blah…But when backed to a wall they panicked-bought players half of who we can’t use.I would like to hear him assertively say we intend to win this year,instead of the tired nimble recycled ‘we will compete’ crap.It’s funny how Song goes from being a fan favourite to being lazy and tardy.Folks this is a busness for everyone involved and both sides will seize a chance when it becomes available.Sadly AFC has the unflattering title as The Selling Club where for the right price even AW might be sold.

     
  16. 4th place is not guaranteed.Everyone keeps forgetting how even Fulham and Swansea started the season.There will probably be more teams vying for 4th.Last season Arsenal made it by the skin of their teeth thanks to RVP and in the last game 2 errors by the West Brom goalkeeper.

     
  17. Nice article.

    Ultimately I think that the club needs to look at the policy it is adopting and realise that players will simply not stay loyal if they do not see the management striving to achieve success ON the field of play.

    A balance between the business model and providing the team the best chance of winning still needs to be found.

    As it stands I do not blame the players for leaving and we still must remember that we are in the CL this year because of the efforts of RVP and Song. Top goal scorer and top assists.

     

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