I think it's difficult to compare footballers to any other job.
No other job has people pay a lot of money to show up and sing your name every week.
I think it's difficult to compare footballers to any other job.
No other job has people pay a lot of money to show up and sing your name every week.
The comparison only goes so far. But in the sense of footballers being paid to do a job and being very competitive people who want to do the best in their relatively short careers it's not massively unreasonable to think a player would entertain other offers. If he leaves for City then I'll think less of him because it'll clearly just be for money.
I think he'll leave this summer to be fair. He didn't seem to want to admit that he'll stay, and was always pushing it onto how he's been here for 8 years and loves the club rather than answering the question. Unless we get 3-4 more world class signings, which I think Wenger/Gazidis will try to persuade him about, he'll be off. Money wise, the max Arsenal will be pushed for will be 130k as mentioned in papers today, at City he'll get around 220k so he may opt for that.
The problem is Wenger's promise of new signings to replenish the squad and to make a concerted effort to go for trophies is not longer credible, given his past actions. He's said the same thing to Cesc to try and keep him and he didn't deliver on his promises.
Ok, what if Van Persie had another injury ravaged season and managed half the games he has played. This would all be a moot point, none of the big sides would be interested yet I guarantee he would be offered another contract from us.
I know he scored some great goals this season, but a large proportion of his goals were easy chances laid on a plate to him. You can't tell me had he not been in the team that we wouldn't have scored any of his goals. On top of this I read he has missed the most goalscoring opportunities in PL, so a shit load is being created for him, opportunities that others could have scored. So no he alone didn't get us in the CL.
It is imperative that we keep him, but I can't think he would be any other teams focal point in the same way he is for us. Its a big gamble for him as well.
Also blaming the medical staff is rubbish, we seem to field 11 players every week so how is it the medical staff haven't broken them as well. How are our medical staff at fault when he is getting injured playing internationally?
I reckon it'll be different this Summer. My one hope is that the manager will not let what happened last Summer happen again. I think there will be a different approach re RVP, and I can see us keeping him even if he doesn't sign. I think also that there will be more quality in.
As I've said, I think its more likely than not that RVP will leave the club. But IMO he is different from Hleb/Adebayor/Nasri/Fabregas in that he will need to be persuaded to leave, not to stay. Citeh/Juve/Real Madrid can be very persuasive, though.
Putting the laughter back into manslaughter