Good Bye RVP!

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Originally Posted by Ice Berg Kamping

Plus its exactly this issue that I'm getting at on the other thread. I think Wenger has to shoulder much of the blame for misjudging last Summer, but regarding the other departures, I wonder if its fair to point the finger at him? Because doing so suggests that we as a club are capable of holding onto top players. nd I think that we need to accept that financially, and therefore performance-wise, we are simply aren't in a position to do so. I'd even go so far as to say that because of Wenger's rep and the perception that a) We play football in the right way b) We give young players an opportunity and c) We treat our players wth respect and do business the right way - we are, and have been punching above our weight for years as regards our ability to attract talent. Its no surprise that this talent gets its head turned at a later stage.

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It's funny, people will point at newcastle, dortmund or lile as prove you don't need loads of money to get the odd bit of success, but, like we've seen season over season, there star players will be ripped apart from the club by richer teams and big promises of sustained glory. The fact we've *survived* for so long is supprising in many aspects, however, if the club still insists we're challenging, and insists on charging fans the highest ticket prices in europe, it needs to behave like those bigger, richer clubs. If it can't, or won't, it needs to drop the charade.

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Originally Posted by AKBapologist

My view?

I think RVP is an Arsenal Fan. And like all fans in his position, he wants to use every single iota of leverage and influence he can to change the direction of the club. I don't think it's about money, more fed up like we all are of watching richer club stockpile talent, whilst we scrape by buying the bare minium we need to stay competitive. Like all fans, he would rather he won trophies here, however, as a competitive professional sportsman, he wants his career to mean something, which is difficult being in a club effectively running an academy model.

Make no doubt, RVP is in an exceptionally strong position, or, conversely, Wenger and the Board are in a very tight corner. Personally, if they can't promise signings, they should have done what Fergie did to Rooney and gave him a 250k per week contract without any messing around. The moral sapping nature of another star leaving can't be underestimated - not just on fans, but on our current squad, and any prospective transfer target we'd have in mind - it would pretty much put an end to any notion that we're competing. Even RVP being forced to stay a year before leaving on a free would be a diaster. It's quite depressing seeing the club fuck around with this.

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I agree - and who would it be most sapping on? Our manager. I can see him being finished off if RVP leaves - how many times can you put eveything you have into a team, merely to make up the 2 steps back you take when a key player leaves?

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Originally Posted by AKBapologist

My view?

I think RVP is an Arsenal Fan. And like all fans in his position, he wants to use every single iota of leverage and influence he can to change the direction of the club. I don't think it's about money, more fed up like we all are of watching richer club stockpile talent, whilst we scrape by buying the bare minium we need to stay competitive. Like all fans, he would rather he won trophies here, however, as a competitive professional sportsman, he wants his career to mean something, which is difficult being in a club effectively running an academy model.

Make no doubt, RVP is in an exceptionally strong position, or, conversely, Wenger and the Board are in a very tight corner. Personally, if they can't promise signings, they should have done what Fergie did to Rooney and gave him a 250k per week contract without any messing around. The moral sapping nature of another star leaving can't be underestimated - not just on fans, but on our current squad, and any prospective transfer target we'd have in mind - it would pretty much put an end to any notion that we're competing. Even RVP being forced to stay a year before leaving on a free would be a diaster. It's quite depressing seeing the club fuck around with this.

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:gp:

This is it in a nutshell I reckon.

Its obvious that the team loves having him as captain and I think we should credit more to him for how the team have started to gel over the last 6 months than we should anyone else.

But its all about player signings I think.

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Originally Posted by AKBapologist

My view?

I think RVP is an Arsenal Fan. And like all fans in his position, he wants to use every single iota of leverage and influence he can to change the direction of the club. I don't think it's about money, more fed up like we all are of watching richer club stockpile talent, whilst we scrape by buying the bare minium we need to stay competitive. Like all fans, he would rather he won trophies here, however, as a competitive professional sportsman, he wants his career to mean something, which is difficult being in a club effectively running an academy model.

Make no doubt, RVP is in an exceptionally strong position, or, conversely, Wenger and the Board are in a very tight corner. Personally, if they can't promise signings, they should have done what Fergie did to Rooney and gave him a 250k per week contract without any messing around. The moral sapping nature of another star leaving can't be underestimated - not just on fans, but on our current squad, and any prospective transfer target we'd have in mind - it would pretty much put an end to any notion that we're competing. Even RVP being forced to stay a year before leaving on a free would be a diaster. It's quite depressing seeing the club fuck around with this.

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I think a lot of this will come down to the medical history. Is he finally over all those injuries or not? Because £250K a week (we will never offer that) is a significant portion of our revenue and RvP will be looking for the final contract, 4 years I would think. (This is why City's achievement just doesn't measure up, they don't need to consider things like this so they aren't really part of everyday football as such.)

I can see what you are saying though. For as much as we get frustrated by what goes on, what must it be like to be directly involved? And have your livlihood depend on it? And for all the talk of big money, once you get it you get used to it. I've had money and I've been skint, you adjust your lifestyle accordingly and take it for granted to a degree. Best I can imagine this is when I worked for a small company that had big, big potential (as in we all could have been rich) if only the management had taken some very simple steps and stopped fucking around. I had the "stop fucking around and I'll stay" meeting with them. It wasn't about the money, it was about what we could achieve if only we got our act sorted out. We decided to go bust instead, which was another way to go for sure. But it was so frustrating it was tempting to leave just to get away from the shit and even though it would have been counterproductive. The guys I worked with were all good guys, it's just we didn't see eye to eye on how things were being run. If that's the situation RvP is in then he's gone because Stan won't be changing his business model (which is bound to be carefully considered and long term) to take RvP's views into account. This is what "nobody is bigger than the team" REALLY means - it means the guy at the top will decide and everyone else can fuck off. It's a noble way of saying my way or the highway.

If Stan understands even a bit about football or he's prepared to listen to somebody who has a better understanding then he may realise the RvP situation is so much more than just how many goals and how many points one player can contribute. It's about the philosophy of the club at this point in time. Have we done the stadium thing now? Are we keeping the promises made to the fans who in the end have financed the whole deal? Are we keeping RvP to signify our transition from a club in development to one that is ready to challenge at the top tier? Or are we still a selling club because other matters (financial) are of greater importance?

This is such a massive transfer window. If we go an make a profit again then it sets the tone for Stan's tenure. It'll all be about making money and doing the bare minimum in terms of competing - again! What will we be able to do as fans if this is the case? Nothing.

Is RvP considering all these issues? I should think so.

Or are we over-complicating things?

Assuming that RVP is happy at Arsenal, which is likely, I think his decision will boil down to 3 things:

1. Package
2. Does he think we will challenge for the title next season
3. His family - settled or good to go

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Originally Posted by Ice Berg Kamping

Or are we over-complicating things?

Assuming that RVP is happy at Arsenal, which is likely, I think his decision will boil down to 3 things:

1. Package
2. Does he think we will challenge for the title next season
3. His family - settled or good to go

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1 - Think thats more down to his wife being happy with that
2 - Unlikely
3 - Not as big a deal as its made out to be. Family go where the moneymaker goes

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Originally Posted by Ach

1 - Think thats more down to his wife being happy with that
2 - Unlikely
3 - Not as big a deal as its made out to be. Family go where the moneymaker goes

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On #3 I agree, I doubt this will be a huge factor and when you're looking at £250K a week it's something that can easily be sorted.

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Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn

On #3 I agree, I doubt this will be a huge factor and when you're looking at £250K a week it's something that can easily be sorted.

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Yeah. "Mum, but I wanna stay in this school, and be with my friends"

"It's ok dear, it's only a short private jet ride away"

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Originally Posted by LDG

Yeah. "Mum, but I wanna stay in this school, and be with my friends"

"It's ok dear, it's only a short private jet ride away"

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More like, "Nanny - take her away please and dress her in some designer gear"

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Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn

On #3 I agree, I doubt this will be a huge factor and when you're looking at £250K a week it's something that can easily be sorted.

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Depends on the family, methinks. Let's face it on £150K pw you can pretty much do what you like. Like I said money will be factor #1. I can't help thinking that for these footballers the wage figure is as much a pissing contest as anything else.