Good Bye RVP!

[Dennis Bendtner]

Are we going to offer him four years, then? Would be a bit unWUMgerish. But I think he's about the same age as Henry when all those shenanigans were going on. Think his was a four-year deal with a shitload of loyalty cash on top. Who knows. It'd be a big commitment from the club. The pragmatists would give him three.

Don't know how much that'll affect things. Don't know anything, really.

[GP]

Give him 4 years and all the space cake he can eat.

[jelgoon]

Isnt the issue going to be over the length of the contrat. He clearly wants 4 years at at least £150,000 per week. Wenger will be worried with his injury record that he wont play enough. Guess it comes down to how much Wenger wants to keep him.

[Kano]

We'll find out at some point. You can run through 100 different theories as to what things he'd value and you could spin it either way. And here's mine:

I take the view that footballers don't think like fans. They're not obsessed with trophies. They want to win and be very famous and in the top bracket of footballers. In order to do that, they can't play for Doncastwood Argyle. They need to play at the highest level and Arsenal are playing at the highest level (the European Cup). Some players (and I think Van Persie is one) like being the big fish in a reasonable-sized pond. They want a lot of money though and if Arsenal are to keep him they have to be prepared to give him a lot of money. If I was Van Persie and even if I didn't really care about Arsenal, I'd know that I could be the king at this club. I would've spent 7 years here already, if I stay for another 5, job done - legend status, hero status, worshipped by every gooner. If I leave now, I won't be a hero here or anywhere else. I wouldn't be a 'legend' of any club. I'm 29 years old and I've got about 3/4 years at the top (if that, considering my injury proneness) and even if I move to Barcelona or Real Madrid and win a couple of titles, I'm not going to be a club legend at those places either. I'll have a shiny medal to show my grandkids. If I stay at Arsenal, I might not have that shiny medal. But, when I'm retired and I'm walking near the stadium and go to a game, I'll get more people telling me how great I was that the kudos is better than the shiny medal for something Barcelona or Real Madrid or Man City probably would've done whether or not I was there. Think about how valued Bergkamp is and how valued Henry is amongst Arsenal fans. That could be me and I'd choose getting a free pint and hero status over anything else (assuming, as I said, I was playing at the highest level).

I think if Henry had to make a choice again, he wouldn't have gone to Barcelona. Hope he had a word with RVP when he was over.

i'm not sure myself, as Henry's legendary status was already secured at the club and he got the final piece of the jigsaw to go with the title, domestic cup, wc and euro, something that we know he very much wanted.

you are right that players don't think like fans although i would say we are less obsessed with trophies than players probably are. the vast majority of players will always have to find other reasons to play the game at any level as they will never win a trophy of note but every player wants to win. win a tackle, a header, a game - the drive is to win the immediate competition you are part of. so i think it follows that players are driven far more by the idea of silverware than we fans are, as it is the ultimate sequential goal of their competitive nature.

it's a tough call to know if a player would value status over medals or vice versa but an interesting question. perhaps when they reach their late 50/60's as more reflection of their life comes into their mind the status thing would mean more but how many of us look that far ahead?

[Olivier's xmas twist]

Are we going to offer him four years, then? Would be a bit unWUMgerish. But I think he's about the same age as Henry when all those shenanigans were going on. Think his was a four-year deal with a shitload of loyalty cash on top. Who knows. It'd be a big commitment from the club. The pragmatists would give him three.

Don't know how much that'll affect things. Don't know anything, really.

Maybe he'll sign a 2 year extension to his current deal just t see how things go in the next couple of seasons.

[Olivier's xmas twist]

We'll find out at some point. You can run through 100 different theories as to what things he'd value and you could spin it either way. And here's mine:

I take the view that footballers don't think like fans. They're not obsessed with trophies. They want to win and be very famous and in the top bracket of footballers. In order to do that, they can't play for Doncastwood Argyle. They need to play at the highest level and Arsenal are playing at the highest level (the European Cup). Some players (and I think Van Persie is one) like being the big fish in a reasonable-sized pond. They want a lot of money though and if Arsenal are to keep him they have to be prepared to give him a lot of money. If I was Van Persie and even if I didn't really care about Arsenal, I'd know that I could be the king at this club. I would've spent 7 years here already, if I stay for another 5, job done - legend status, hero status, worshipped by every gooner. If I leave now, I won't be a hero here or anywhere else. I wouldn't be a 'legend' of any club. I'm 29 years old and I've got about 3/4 years at the top (if that, considering my injury proneness) and even if I move to Barcelona or Real Madrid and win a couple of titles, I'm not going to be a club legend at those places either. I'll have a shiny medal to show my grandkids. If I stay at Arsenal, I might not have that shiny medal. But, when I'm retired and I'm walking near the stadium and go to a game, I'll get more people telling me how great I was that the kudos is better than the shiny medal for something Barcelona or Real Madrid or Man City probably would've done whether or not I was there. Think about how valued Bergkamp is and how valued Henry is amongst Arsenal fans. That could be me and I'd choose getting a free pint and hero status over anything else (assuming, as I said, I was playing at the highest level).

I think if Henry had to make a choice again, he wouldn't have gone to Barcelona. Hope he had a word with RVP when he was over.

Can't disagree with any of that.

[IBK]

We'll find out at some point. You can run through 100 different theories as to what things he'd value and you could spin it either way. And here's mine:

I take the view that footballers don't think like fans. They're not obsessed with trophies. They want to win and be very famous and in the top bracket of footballers. In order to do that, they can't play for Doncastwood Argyle. They need to play at the highest level and Arsenal are playing at the highest level (the European Cup). Some players (and I think Van Persie is one) like being the big fish in a reasonable-sized pond. They want a lot of money though and if Arsenal are to keep him they have to be prepared to give him a lot of money. If I was Van Persie and even if I didn't really care about Arsenal, I'd know that I could be the king at this club. I would've spent 7 years here already, if I stay for another 5, job done - legend status, hero status, worshipped by every gooner. If I leave now, I won't be a hero here or anywhere else. I wouldn't be a 'legend' of any club. I'm 29 years old and I've got about 3/4 years at the top (if that, considering my injury proneness) and even if I move to Barcelona or Real Madrid and win a couple of titles, I'm not going to be a club legend at those places either. I'll have a shiny medal to show my grandkids. If I stay at Arsenal, I might not have that shiny medal. But, when I'm retired and I'm walking near the stadium and go to a game, I'll get more people telling me how great I was that the kudos is better than the shiny medal for something Barcelona or Real Madrid or Man City probably would've done whether or not I was there. Think about how valued Bergkamp is and how valued Henry is amongst Arsenal fans. That could be me and I'd choose getting a free pint and hero status over anything else (assuming, as I said, I was playing at the highest level).

I think if Henry had to make a choice again, he wouldn't have gone to Barcelona. Hope he had a word with RVP when he was over.

I love this post.

[Cripps_orig]

I think players would rather have trophies and medals to show for their career

[IBK]

Isnt the issue going to be over the length of the contrat. He clearly wants 4 years at at least £150,000 per week. Wenger will be worried with his injury record that he wont play enough. Guess it comes down to how much Wenger wants to keep him.

I just think Wenger will not allow last Summer to happen again. I mean Wenger knows he doesn't have much longer. How many times can he pull himself back from losing the heart of his team? If RVP does not actively want out, I'm hopeful that Wenger will do what is needed. I think that AW ultimately gives in when its obvious a player doesn't want to play for him any more. Always has because he respects his players. An RVP wanting to be convinced to stay where he wants to be, rather than talked out of a decision already made to leave might be different.

[Olivier's xmas twist]

I think players would rather have trophies and medals to show for their career

Thats modern day footballers that is. They'd also have 300K that goes along with all that too.