Good Bye RVP!

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Originally Posted by Marc Overmars

If there is any indication he won't sign, we need to sell him, just like Nasri. We can't afford to lose our best player, but let alone on a bosman.

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Offer enough money and he'll sign. But if he doesn't, I'm not so sure we should sell. We got £25m for Nasri purely because he was willing to stay in England. Nobody seriously expects Van Persie to stay in England if he decides to leave Arsenal - Barcelona, Real Madrid, Milan, Bayern whoever...they won't pay more than around £20m for a player who's 29 and in the last year of his contract. If that's the case, we might as well tell him to give us one more year and let him go on a free; not only to aid the development of the team and key young players like Wilshere and Oxlade who might be preparing to take over, but because Robin might single-handedly drag us into a CL spot - like this year - which makes up the difference of the £20m+ anyway.

From the fans' perspective, I guess we all want him to stay next year even if he doesn't sign a contract. Whether we lose him for £25m or £0, it only seems to go towards presenting some healthy profit figures. And we don't have to worry about selling any other big-money names because none would be left.

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Originally Posted by Fist of Lehmann

Depends on your definition of decent. I think by now we know that trying to pressure the management to buy doesn't work.

It didn't work with Henry, it didn't work with Fabregas and it won't work with Rvp. I'm specifically thinking of Trezeguet/Alonso and I probably remember some non-specific instances as well.

The wishes of your star player are all very well, but when weighed against the various circumstances, considerations and limitations surrounding our transfer dealings I doubt that it enters their minds too much.

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I was hesitant to admit it at first - especially when we were on that run of 8 league wins out of 9 games when the whole team was putting in a good shift - but if we reach 4th this season, it will be purely because of Van Persie. I don't think, in our recent history, there has ever been a case of one player so transparently carrying the team. Cesc in 09/10, I guess you could make a case for, but I think he had a good team supporting him. Van Persie has pushed us up around 6-8 league positions IMO. Yes it's easy to measure a striker's contribution as opposed to a defender like Koscielny who has also been superb, but still. The club would have to listen to Van Persie's demands because the club is so reliant on him. Money's always the main factor though - add on Arshavin's wages (which should near enough double Robin's) and he'll be happy enough.

Yup, He's going to get broken by some GHEL tomorrow night anyway, we should cash in today.

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Originally Posted by Syn

Offer enough money and he'll sign. But if he doesn't, I'm not so sure we should sell. We got £25m for Nasri purely because he was willing to stay in England. Nobody seriously expects Van Persie to stay in England if he decides to leave Arsenal - Barcelona, Real Madrid, Milan, Bayern whoever...they won't pay more than around £20m for a player who's 29 and in the last year of his contract. If that's the case, we might as well tell him to give us one more year and let him go on a free; not only to aid the development of the team and key young players like Wilshere and Oxlade who might be preparing to take over, but because Robin might single-handedly drag us into a CL spot - like this year - which makes up the difference of the £20m+ anyway.

From the fans' perspective, I guess we all want him to stay next year even if he doesn't sign a contract. Whether we lose him for £25m or £0, it only seems to go towards presenting some healthy profit figures. And we don't have to worry about selling any other big-money names because none would be left.

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I'm not sure how healthy it would be for the team to play the season knowing their captain and talisman is leaving at the end. Also the impression I got from the clubs finances and hearing Gazidis talk, is that whilst money is available a lot of it is tied up in the week to week running of the club. We spend what we earn and I feel that 25m will be needed if the worst happens and he does leave. Worth baring in mind Arsenal need to sign a good few players regardless of whether RVP stays or not, and we can't ignore financial loss in the same way City can.

he might well love the club but after Real do the league and european double this year and then approach him in the summer he will be off. I can just imagine his toothy little face as he says to Uncle Arsene "I will stay if you invest in the squad with real quality players" and then it gets to the 15th of August and the only new signings we have are Wilshere coming back from injury and the return of Denilson...

He probably wanted out in the summer past but we charmed him with the armband as we did Cesc the year before and when we got an Extra year out of Henry and Vieira before that.

Awesome players, good man but he wont win anything here.

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Originally Posted by Syn

I was hesitant to admit it at first - especially when we were on that run of 8 league wins out of 9 games when the whole team was putting in a good shift - but if we reach 4th this season, it will be purely because of Van Persie. I don't think, in our recent history, there has ever been a case of one player so transparently carrying the team. Cesc in 09/10, I guess you could make a case for, but I think he had a good team supporting him. Van Persie has pushed us up around 6-8 league positions IMO. Yes it's easy to measure a striker's contribution as opposed to a defender like Koscielny who has also been superb, but still. The club would have to listen to Van Persie's demands because the club is so reliant on him. Money's always the main factor though - add on Arshavin's wages (which should near enough double Robin's) and he'll be happy enough.

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There is no doubting his importance, but is he deemed so important that the club would do what it took to keep him? I think both scenarios represent problems to the club.

1) Double his wages.
For this to happen Arsene must swallow his egalitarian principles, but there is precendent. Henry was paid a massive wage in his last season.

Gazidis must then deal with the backlash within the rest of the squad. Those demanding concomitant wage increases need to placated or shipped out. It's hard to know exactly how big this backlash would be. Maybe the more inportant question is 'How much of a backlash are the board willing to risk?'.

Really, to rebalance the wage structure will require a huge clear out. Overpaid players won't accept pay cuts and are difficult to shift. Gazidis has spoken before about needing to 'trim the fat' so they do see the need to find more efficiency in the wage bill.

2) Invest in decent additions.
Again it's our wage structure which hampers us here as well as our willingness to fee large fees. I reckon without this stumbling bloack we would have Juan Mata right now.

As noted on Swiss Ramble, £50m pretty much buys you 1 £25m player on £100k a week. Beyond that we need to sell to buy. That's if Wenger would even be up for spending that. (Note, a £25m player is just my version of what I reckon a guy like Rvp would consider 'decent'.)

Thirdly, Rvp's version of decent might not necessarily match with Wenger's definition. Irrespective of how they've turned out, most of Wenger's signings have been, at first glance, underwhelming.
Yossi Fucking Benayoun?? Or words to that effect.

Theres no other single player who's anywhere near as important to us as RVP, so who else would moan that he's getting a huge pay increase (maybe double)?

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Originally Posted by Fist of Lehmann

There is no doubting his importance, but is he deemed so important that the club would do what it took to keep him? I think both scenarios represent problems to the club.

1) Double his wages.
For this to happen Arsene must swallow his egalitarian principles, but there is precendent. Henry was paid a massive wage in his last season.

Gazidis must then deal with the backlash within the rest of the squad. Those demanding concomitant wage increases need to placated or shipped out. It's hard to know exactly how big this backlash would be. Maybe the more inportant question is 'How much of a backlash are the board willing to risk?'.

Really, to rebalance the wage structure will require a huge clear out. Overpaid players won't accept pay cuts and are difficult to shift. Gazidis has spoken before about needing to 'trim the fat' so they do see the need to find more efficiency in the wage bill.

2) Invest in decent additions.
Again it's our wage structure which hampers us here as well as our willingness to fee large fees. I reckon without this stumbling bloack we would have Juan Mata right now.

As noted on Swiss Ramble, £50m pretty much buys you 1 £25m player on £100k a week. Beyond that we need to sell to buy. That's if Wenger would even be up for spending that. (Note, a £25m player is just my version of what I reckon a guy like Rvp would consider 'decent'.)

Thirdly, Rvp's version of decent might not necessarily match with Wenger's definition. Irrespective of how they've turned out, most of Wenger's signings have been, at first glance, underwhelming.
Yossi Fucking Benayoun?? Or words to that effect.

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Nicely put.

The bit that interests me is the clear out bit.

Clearly we have a number of players on "too much". What we have to do is stop the cycle with the newly promoted squad players. The likes of Afobe, coq and the like, players who may well be the back up, should be on wages befitting them.

The big bucks can then be chucked at the players who merit it, and perhaps as tempters for players coming in.

Will be interesting to see who departs.

Everyone was talking about Tomas Rosicky being shipped out. Fuck me, if he plays like he did on Sunday every week, I'd rather keep him thanks!!

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Originally Posted by LDG

Nicely put.

The bit that interests me is the clear out bit.

Clearly we have a number of players on "too much". What we have to do is stop the cycle with the newly promoted squad players. The likes of Afobe, coq and the like, players who may well be the back up, should be on wages befitting them.

The big bucks can then be chucked at the players who merit it, and perhaps as tempters for players coming in.

Will be interesting to see who departs.

Everyone was talking about Tomas Rosicky being shipped out. Fuck me, if he plays like he did on Sunday every week, I'd rather keep him thanks!!

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Did he play that waht because he us trying to negoatiate a new contract and once he gets it will he go back and be frustating again. Half of me wants to Keep, him because of how he played the other half thinks we be better lettimg him go with the dead wood and bringing in a hazard or Gotze.

I dont think people appreciate just how much dead wood we have and the cost of keeping them around for the rest of their contracts. Would be far better to just negotiate a pay of and get rid of the twats. Some will go on free transfers, the likes of Almunia and Vela will always have clubs willing to sign them its the ones with the attitude we may struggle to shift, like Bendtner and Denilson.